On Sun, 26 Jun 2005, Nathan Newman wrote:
> Any time eminent domain is used, people are required to receive the market
> value of the property
I think that's part of the problem. Fair market value doesn't compensate people for their pain and suffering -- the cost of being forced to uproot their lives -- which is a big deal. Eminent domain seems fundamentally unjust for a simple reason: they're not fully compensated.
Theoretically that would be easy enough to fix. But you'd have to change the compensation principle to FMV Plus.
After that I could certainly imagine enough sweetener that made it a wash. But without, these people are always getting screwed. And democracy doesn't fix it, since it's always a small minority being sacrificed to the needs of the majority. If the majority is rational, votes their interest, and takes the "objective" view, they'd vote against the minority every time.
Michael