Policy Documents

How to Talk about Property Rights: Why Protecting Property Rights Benefits All Americans

John Shanahan –
June 1, 1996
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The federal government increasingly passes the costs of its policies on to private property owners.  To protect species under the Endangered Species Act, to preserve wetlands under the Clean Water Act, or to effect some other such goal, the government typically prohibits or constrains property owners from using their property as they wish - for example, by forbidding them to build on their land.