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Open Letter to a Believer in Miracles

Mr. David A. Benson
Sacramento, CA

Dear Mr. Benson:

You’re the moving force behind a California ballot initiative that, as reported in the August 17 issue of Business Law Daily, would “ban lender-initiated home foreclosures” and “make home ownership a fundamental right” (“California Ballot Proposal Would Ban Home Foreclosures“).

Way cool!

Trusting your insight (and why not trust someone as caring and politically active as you obviously are?), I gather that you’ve figured out how to produce valuable goods merely by officially inscribing words in government documents.

As I say, waaaay cool!  But now I must ask: if everyone can be guaranteed what in effect would be a debt-free home merely by amending a state constitution, why stop with homeownership?  Why not put to full use the miraculous powers that you’ve obviously learned to extract from mere ink on parchment?  Let’s also make automobile ownership “a fundamental right.”

Heck, even that’s thinking too small!  Let’s give everyone a “fundamental right” to own both a yacht and a private jet!

A power so stupendous and costless as the one you’ve identified ought to be used to its full capacity – which, given the nature of this power, apparently knows no limits.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

(HT Morganovich)

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