#128 Limiting Urban Sprawl

Land control schemes limit owners’ freedom, and they prevent the economic development that enables the poor to move into the middle class.

 

Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano has called for extensions of the state’s Agriculture Conservation Easement Purchase Program.  The press release from Mr. Mastriano’s office goes on to explain the reasoning, “In recent years, more and more prime farmland has been lost to development.”  Lost?  Where did it go?  An economist would say it is being transferred from a lower economic use to a higher one.  Isn’t that good for the economy of Pennsylvania?

Oh, but wait, there’s more.  “Since 1988, the program has purchased permanent conservation easements on 5,979 Pennsylvania farms, covering 606,215 acres in 58 counties.”  If a little is good, is it a lot better?  In China, the Communist party owns all the land.  Is that where Mr. Mastriano’s Republicans are headed?  While not stating the total that’s been spent on the program, he hopes to raise the annual waste….excuse me….investment….no, that’s not right either…the annual amount of money that will be forcibly extracted from Pennsylvania taxpayers to prevent developers from moving the land to a higher economic use, to $80 million each year.  You realize, there is no free lunch.  That $80 million will be withdrawn from the productive part of the economy.  

I will throw the potential Governor a couple of small bones, before trying to explain the Biblical aspects of this program. 

First is imminent domain.  There probably IS Biblical support for forcibly taking SOME property from individuals to serve the common good.  But not in this case.  The second is common values.  There certainly is Biblical support for a community making laws that prevent extreme value violations, like prostitution, but this does not apply either. 

Now for the Biblical violations of forcibly taking money from taxpayers and using that money to limit the development of land.  You realize the word “development” means it is being DEVELOPED.  Something Mr. Mastriano seems to be against.  

 

People Should be Free

The first of the ten Biblical Commandments of Economics in our book Biblical Economic Policy is People should be free.  In this case, people should be free to use their property as they wish.  Why does Mr. Mastriano think HIS use of the land is better than the land-owner?  In most cases, the Bible would make a case for an individual doing what he wants with his property.  Unless of course, Mr. Mastriano wants to revert to the Old Testament law of Jubilee, where the land remained with the political powers of the age: The twelve tribes of Israel.  

 

The market works.  

No one is as smart as all of us, and the Governor is no exception.  Adam Smith – yea, that guy – his basic idea in The Wealth of Nations says, “Each person seeking his own good provides for the good of all.”  That idea would favor individuals mostly doing what they want with their land.  Former Speaker of the House Dick Army once quipped, “Markets are smart, governments are dumb.”

If limiting urban sprawl is good in 2022, would the Governor undo the sprawl that has happened in the past in Pennsylvania?  Should housing be taken from homeowners, and plowed under to return it to farmland?  Exactly where is the line drawn to stop urban sprawl?  And if it’s considered just to stop it, it would be just to reverse it.

Then there’s the “Thee not me,” conundrum.  I am guessing Mr. Mastriano lives in a house on some land.