From Lew Rockwell’s blog, he has a link to this November 22, 2012 article by the Mail Online: “Won’t sell up? Enjoy living in the middle of a motorway! Road is built around a house after elderly Chinese couple refuse to move.“
Despite China’s Constitution only requiring compensation for the taking of private property, as opposed to “just compensation,” as the U.S. Constitution requires — or no mention whatsoever of any compensation for the taking of private property, as is the case with the Canadian Constitution — laws have since been passed in China prohibiting the taking of private property with force, without just cause, such as participation in criminal activities.
Previously, I wrote the article, Canadians recognize the importance of private property rights, about online readers of Canada’s largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, recognizing the importance of private property rights. Despite the Canadian Constitution providing no explicit protection for the taking of private property, as one commenter noted, the practice is often more relevant, as noted by this Chinese example, as well.
As for Lew Rockwell’s claim of “Another Way that China is Freer Than the US,” China is a very economically oppressive country, as illustrated by only being the 138th most economically free country out of 179 according to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom.
One way that China isn’t as economically free as the U.S. is the requirement to get permission from the central government in order to secure a job in a new city, as I witnessed personally with a company I was working for when they were going through the bureaucratic red tape to hire someone in their Chinese office.
Just as it isn’t the homeowner’s right to have water and electricity, it also isn’t the government’s or developer’s right to take away his private property, and the picture of this man’s home is one of the best sights of freedom I’ve seen this year.
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