Ham, Bacon, and Eggs not for Breakfast, but the Future

Friday night Mineral County held its annual Ham, Bacon, and Eggs Sale and the crowd appeared much larger than last year and prices also seemed higher. I was glad to see the kids get a good profit from their efforts. The whole Potomac Highlands business community and beyond was out in force to support these young capitalist. There were Grand Champion winners singled out, but all were winners. I’m not just saying that to be nice, they truly are winners. They learn that you can better yourself and be rewarded through hard work. Even the last place finisher in any one category won, their hard work was rewarded at the sale.

My fear is the future may hold another lesson, and that is government can destroy your hard work or place limits on your future hard work. Interestingly earlier in the day I had a conversation with a person that lived near one of the Future Farmers (I don't believe he knew that) and this person was telling me the county needed zoning, because he shouldn't have to deal with the a farm near his home. I was polite to the person and listened but I’m thinking, “This farm has been here for over 100 years, and you moved here recently. Didn't you notice the fences, barns, and animals that you had to drive by before you bought?” The answer is of course he did.

July 4th, 1776 the founding fathers signed a great document that stated we have "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Zoning flies in the face of these underlying princles of freedom. Property rights are a corner stone of liberty. That same year Adam Smith published "Wealth of Nations" and in it stated "The first and chief design of every system of government is to maintain justice: to prevent the members of society from encroaching on one another’s property, or seizing what is not their own. The design here is to give each one the secure and peaceable possession of his own property." Property Rights allow us to use our property without the interference of neighbors or government, as long as we do not violate the rights of others.

Now proponent's of Zoning, like to pretend that a farmers discarded rusting tractor sitting in his field is a violation of their rights because it is visually unpleasing. I checked death certificates in West Virginia, and I found none listing a cause of death as, "looked at a rusting tractor," so it does not deprive us of life. Unless the farmer chains his neighbor to the tractor, it does not deprive him of liberty. Third we only have the right to only pursue happiness. We are not guaranteed happiness as a right, and a rusting tractor doesn't stop that pursuit. Now if the farmer decides to set fire to his tractor and sends toxic fumes into his neighbors yard, then he is violating his neighbors rights, because those fumes could cause a risk to his life. The tractor just sitting there violates no ones rights.

Zoning takes away the rights of the land owner. Its purpose is to give government control over an owners property and limiting the owners use, while no limits are placed on the owners responsibilities under the law. The land owner only can use his property by permission of the government, not by right as the founding fathers intended. Zoning gives power favoring those with political and monetary clout at the expense of the original land owners and less affluent. It creates class warfare that only benefits the wealthy, and destroys our way of life.

At the Ham, Bacon, and Eggs sale the Future Farmers learned first hand that the Free Market allows you to pursue your dreams, and be rewarded if you work hard and do your job well. The founding fathers were farmers and put protections in to protect property rights. Zoning would be turning our backs on that principle of liberty, and that is not a future in which I want to live.