Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Moorhead Monday: Unintended Consequences

At Monday's committee of the whole meeting, we discussed three well-intentioned (I think) city programs: rental registration, vacant building designation and code enforcement. All three clearly violate private property rights and I attempted to demonstrate that these "solutions" create larger problems.

Rental registration injects politics into otherwise voluntary transactions between landlords and tenants. As with many such regulations, the arrogant nanny state believes consumers aren't smart enough to find an appropriate place to live and that landlords are out to scam renters. The burden of such actions falls disproportionately on the poor who are willing to live with chipped paint, since landlords must adhere to the regulation and increased property costs or face fines and loss of rental "privileges".

Vacant building designation attempts to force people into actively using their improved property or put it up for sale. While few people think "progress" when they see a vacant building, the city should not be in a position to demand I do anything with my property unless I'm causing physical harm to my neighbor or his property.

Code enforcement has become a method by which the majority attempts to coerce a minority into "looking like" everyone else. Your grass must be this long, your fence must be this high, your walk must be shoveled, gardening equipment may not be in the front yard, etc. I don't have a problem with individual neighborhood associations enacting goofy restrictions with unanimous consent... but it is a poor policy for an entire city to pursue: we're essentially telling people we don't want them because of how they look.

It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that I should control the actions of other peaceful adults. I've seen paint colors that make me wrinkle up my nose, apartment carpet that I wouldn't walk on, and empty buildings that seem to be decaying. But when I attempt to use government bullies to enforce MY will on another - I've violated the human rights of those owners. And I won't have any part of it.

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