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Show Page 8 The UTAH INDEPENDENT February 18, 1972 Zoned or Owned? By John C. Sparks article is serialized in three parts. It is reprinted here to show the fallacy of the government controlling private property through the process known as zoning. Instead of protecting the property values of the people it is shown in this article that zoning has, in many cases, depressed property values. All that has happend since zoning is to transfer the control of private property to the government and out of the hands of the owner. This Plato, tells of a shepherd who found an unusual ring. When the rings set was turned inward toward the palm of the hand, the wearer became invisible.! A question is then posed. How would a man react if he had such a ring in his he transgress could remain petrating this possession? Would upon another if he invisible while per- sensitivity within a society, stealing causes evil results. And it causes evil results even though accomplished by invisible means. Faced with such bad results, man naturally tries to find cures for these unpleasant outcomes. As he' does so diligently and honestly, he slowly moves to a better understanding of the laws of our Creator. He sees more clearly than before the falinvasion of anoth- lacy of hiding his moral responsers rights? Would he steal if ibly in the midst of the group. there were no danger of being He discovers that the commandThou shalt not steal ment caught? Twentieth-centur- y man need is more complicated than he ever not speculate about magic rings knew. Occasionally, the real to hide his immorality. Over re- source of an abuse against an incent centuries he has become en- dividuals lights is discovered, and even less occasionally sucamored with the use of a device called majority cessful steps are taken to rectify rule which does much the same it. Examples of these rare inthing. Through the privacy of a stances are the events leading to ballot box, the voter becomes an the Magna Carta, Petition of unidentified person, in effect an Rights, and Declaration of Indeinvisible person, who has the pendence. Perhaps one measure chance to transgress upon his of mans evolution is the degree neighbor by voting to remove le- of his ability to recognize transgally a part of his neighbors gressions of men upon other property or his right to use it as men that go beyond the simple commission of theft and murder. he likes. . Parti In our day there are but few persons, surely, who would adopt plain, unadorned, outright thievery as a way of life. And if a few were so inclined, the rest of us undoubtedly would bring the force of police power to bear upon them in order to discourage their immoral inclinations. Crude trasngressions upon the right to own ones property, therefore, are rather effectively thwarted. People almost always recognize stealing in its simplest form and act to prevent it. Failure to do so would produce unpleasant, unhappy results, for in a society in which ownership is not respected, production of goods beyond mere subsistence level ceases. After all, why should one person produce a good that could be taken away by another? As a way of life, stealing can result in nothing kind more than a is the reof existence. Stealing moval or property, in whole or part, or of the right to its use, from its owner wihtout the owners consent. In the absense of theft, a complete owner may use hand-to-mou- th his property as he wishes, sell it to another who wants to buy it, give it away, or even destroy it as long as he has not removed another persons right to do likewise with his property. Now, let us introduce a bit of complexity to the discussion of stealing. A legend, related by Irresponsible Behavior When the scope of govern- ment is extended beyond the police protection of the life, liberty, and property of each citizen, we have entered the land of the shepherds legendary ring. And as the intrusion of government interference into private lives becomes the customary and accepted manner of societys operation, the sense that distinguishes between the moral and the immoral is lost, or at least numbed. Regardless of a dulled moral 1 Plato's THE REPUBLIC, translated by Benjamin Jowett (New York: The Modern Library). the process described never arrives at a final conclusion as it threads its way However, through the chronicles of history never moves in a straight line toward deeper discernment. Sometimes a gain is registered; at other times ground is lost. Mans imperfection allows only glimpses here and there as he struggles upward on the irregular path of evolution. Therefore, it should not be surprising that certain manifestations of particular abuses by some men against others may be quite unsuspected. An abuse may appear in a form that seems to be very respectable, even praiseworthy. It may receive the unqualified support of leading citizens who sincerely Same Location for Two Decades Courteous Friendly Service Increase 25, Rolls Rise 17 welfare ng & Welfare Costs National ever-wideni- skyrocketed 25 percent and relief rolls 17 percent in the biggest annual increase in million on relief. The average monthly payment to a weltare client rose 52.10 over the 970 rate. Aid to families with dependent children, rhe biggest of all weltare programs, showed a 23 percent growth in number of clients. Only one state. West Virginia, showed a decline in the number ot clients in that part ot the welfare program. HEW also reported that states have cut the level of 1 1 welfare aid economy moves. Kentucky ,312a Se. Stete Street a property may use such propert- y,1 consume it, give it away, change it all as ex- he wishes that is ownership. Zoning reduces his latitude of action by political restrictions that prevent certain possible uses and require others. Zoning and owning are different systems of determining land use. Either the land will be privately owned and its use determined by the owner to his greatest satisfaction from the choices available to him in the market place, or the land will be used as directed by government. Zoning has attained widespread acceptance in most urban communities and in many rural districts as well. Numerous civic leaders of good reputation believe zoning is a proper method to preserve and even to encourage a growth of property values. As a result of such popularity, it is likely that few persons consider or perhaps adzoning wrong mitting it is an intervention, consider it a good intervention producing more good than evil. Or a few may believe it is a wrong intervention, but still better than allowing each owner to make his own decisions, predicting the latter would be chaotic. Logic is laid aside. Forgotten is the fact that stealing is a reduction of an owners right to his property without his personal consent, and that zoning falls within the definition of this wrong. Knowing that wrong methods inevitably produce wrong results, we should logically expect wrong results in proportion to the degree zoning dictates property use. It really should be unnecessary to have to prove that evil begets evil in every separate and including zoning any evil evil results. about brings 1 1 would be convenient if every unhappy effect were clearly identified with its root cause. But such is not the case. Causes are often obscure and must be carefully searched out. And even then the connection between an alleged cause and an alleged effect may be beyond unquestionable proof. Particularly is this the case regarding land use, because each piece of land is Its owner is also unique, being the as unique as a fingerprint. only one of his particular mold in all creation. For these two reasons alone, no set of circumstances surrounding the determination of land use can be identical with another. Consequently, whether one land use is better than another cannot be proven in the manner that a chemist, for instance, would with two situations controlled to be alike in all respects except one, so that one variable and its cause and effect relationship can be isolated. ent Hence, the search for proof will produce only circumstantial evidence. We could proceed from either end as a prognosis, wherein a known wrong action is the basis for predicting an outcome; or as a diagnosis, wherein the outcome provides a clue as to its contributing causes. ill-fat- available. From Essays on Liberty Vol. XII, Foundation For Economic EducaNew York tion, Irvington-on-Hudso10533 n, Mr. Sparks is a business executive Canton, Ohio. YOUR HEART -T- AKE BETTER CARE OF IT BY Williamsens Inc. Providing TOTAL SERVICE to the Truck Transport Industry Fresh, Organically - Grown Fruits & Vegetables Full Coverage in Truck Bodies and Equipment Commercial Trailers and Transport Refrigeration Construction and Utility Equipment Day and Evening Shop Sendees No Hormones Used Beatrices Selected Valley F iTlTi s 1 Williamsens Inc. recently 1925 Indiana Avenue 328-97- 3530 So. Redwood Rd.f Salt Lake City, Utah 84119 61 Phone ed Probably both methods must be employed, drawing upon theory and whatever evidence there is - Phene 4S4.S56I, 1 in Act uni in One manifestation of this kind is zoning. By definition, zoning is an interference with the right of ownership. When an owner of HABITS history, 14.3 method should be sufficient reason in itself to bring it to an end. It is a sorry commentary on our time that expediency is the prevailing measure rather than principle. So, we must try to establish by evidence once again that CHANGING vYOUR FOOD costs the Department of Health. Education and Welfare (HhW) reported. HEW said welfare costs for the year ended June 30 totalled SI 6.3 billion for the new instance. To identify an evil attempt to achieve a desirable goal through its use. The Abuse That Is Zoning 299-304- 1 of |