Another tax on man's behavior and freedom............when does the growth of government stop ? Originally Posted by WhirlawayWhen we actually do things to protect people from large corporations that environmentally rape and pillage what rightfully belongs to others would be a good start.
My grandparents owned a small trio of row houses. They and my uncles/aunts lived on the 2nd floor of all three, their shop was on the first floor of one, and they rented out the other two first floors to other small businesses. It was their life's savings after spending 60 years here having immigrated to the US in the 1880s. Citizens, tax payers, proud to be Americans. Their kids (my father included) were born here and became the first to get through college; two became Drs. One of the small businesses was bought by a large corp, who kept paying the rent on the lease. They also started dumping chemicals on the dirt floor in the basement. The corporation left several years later for bigger digs. It was then that by grandmother found out the toxic waste dumping had poisoned the entire block. She tried to go after the corp for cleanup, but the litigation dragged on until she couldn't afford the lawyers any more--the corp won. Her property was worthless. 60 years of hard work and doing what was "right", and she died destitute because of "man's behavior and freedom".
Look at the fights over trucking roads going through Chaco. Some people believe their "right" to a more economical path to haul their goods (at taxpayer expense) greatly outweighs other taxpayers' right to preserve a unique cultural national park.
A town I used to live in had almost 30% of the town turned uninhabitable because of industrial pollution. The EPA went after the company for fines and clean-up costs, but the company declared bankruptcy and paid nothing. But the fine upstanding executives, exercising their "behavior and freedom" walked away as millionaires.
Another place I lived was largely small family farms. A developer bought up a wide swath up-hill from many of the farms & the creek. They cut all the trees, put up house, and over the next two years the rains rolled down the hill unslowed by the vegitation that was no longer there. The fields were flooded--that was not a hughe problem directly--but also washed away most the topsoil. In the next few years essentially every farmer was wiped out. But the developer was just exercising their "freedom".
Freedom is good, but one person's freedom can easly become someone else's torment.