Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 35 of Thomas Sowell’s 2008 volume, Economic Facts and Fallacies:

Often the character of a community includes a bucolic setting or expansive views of the surrounding area which those who live there cherish. But they did not buy those settings or those views or pay to have them guaranteed to remain the same in perpetuity. Other people with other preferences have had the same rights under the Constitution, at least until courts began to erode both property rights and the “equal protection of the laws” prescribed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Political authorities in various jurisdictions began to take advantage of that erosion of property rights to pass restrictive housing laws under a variety of politically attractive names such as “open space,” “smart growth,” and the like. Such restrictions have been especially prevalent in overwhelmingly upscale liberal communities such as those in coastal California, where concerns are often expressed for the poor, for minorities, and for children – all of whom are among those most often forced out of such communities by high housing prices.

DBx: Yes.

And, of course, by “liberal,” Sowell really means “progressive.”