[extropy-chat] Fill it in a pave it over

[Dan Clemmensen]

Adrian Tymes wrote:

>--- Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>Adrian Tymes wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Assuming you could buy out the entire city, or most of it.  While
>>>      
>>>
>>the
>>    
>>
>>>government may have the legal right to force the sales (see recent
>>>eminent domain cases), even the US federal government might have a
>>>      
>>>
>>hard
>>    
>>
>>>time coming up with that much money (without giving many people so
>>>little that it could credibly be called far below fair value/market
>>>price).
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>No need to buy out anything. title for each parcel remains with each 
>>property holder.
>>The government just piles somewhere between three and twenty feet of 
>>gravel on top.
>>You lose the value of your improvements, but in a great many cases
>>you 
>>already lost
>>most of the value due to flood damage.
>>    
>>
>
>Altering property without the property owners' permission seems even
>more legally objectionable.  Which is not to say it wouldn't otherwise
>be a good idea; I'm just worried it might be rejected by the courts
>(and liability for it would prevent the government from doing it).
>_______________________________________________
>  
>
Does the government have any legal obligation to turn the pumps back on?
If not, then the property owner is free to use his submerged property as 
he wishes.
At least at the seashore, after the ocean has permanently inundated your 
property, your
property rights cease. It's not the government that "altered" your 
rights: it's mother nature.
You can't have it both ways. If you want minimal government involvement, 
the pumps
stop. If you want the pumps to keep running, you must agree to a role 
for government
(or for some other collective with coercive powers,) Filling the place 
with gravel replaces active
civil engineering (pumps) with passive civil engineering. Passive civil 
engineering, done
correctly, can endure for thousands of years without maintanence, and is 
therefore a much
better bet.