I was condemned in 1963 by the government.  If you have ever had your property taken by the government you will never view government the same.  It’s a life altering experience.  I managed a family owned business in the path of the on-ramp to I-5 from Balboa in Pacific Beach.  After 26 years in business, the government put our family business out of business.  This is why I’m now in real estate, why I was elected to the San Diego City Council, and why I joined Citizens For Private Property Rights. 

Some of you are concerned about the government’s efforts to outlaw the spanking of children, prohibit smoking not only in public buildings but in private, fine you for not wearing seatbelts or not using low-flow toilets, limit tasty foods with trans fats and prohibit coffee, eliminate free speech 90 days before an election, and fine radio stations that oppose tax increases.  When universal health care is adopted and government pays more of your medical bills, just like with the health costs of smoking, government will justify regulating what we eat, how we exercise, and what forms of risky recreation shall be allowed, in addition as to how much Medicare will be allowed to care for aging patients.  After all, if the government is responsible for paying your medical bills government employees with their awesome power will want to pay as little as it can to make tax dollars go as far as possible.  Think not? All the above are either under discussion, being adopted or have been implemented by the very same people in government that have the power to tax you, incarcerate you, or take your life. 

But none of the above gives the government as much power as the elimination of property rights, without which no other rights are possible (as proven on a massive scale in eastern block countries over the last century).   If you want your children and grandchildren to grow up in a free society, you can’t rely upon Democrats or Republicans to protect you.   They constantly crave power and they are the problem.  As Milton Friedman has said, we have the right people in government – the trick is to get them to do the right thing.  Having known personally hundreds of politicians, I’m convinced the only way to preserve our rights is not by relying on individual politicians but through Constitutional Amendments such as the trailblazing Propositon 13 that limited property taxes in California (over the objections of nearly all politicians in power at the time).

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."   —  Thomas Jefferson