An opinion piece in The Dallas Morning News correctly notes that SB12, which would force social media platforms like Facebook to publish content the company finds objectionable. Can you imagine a law that forced someone who plants a yard sign supporting a Republican candidate to also place one for the Democratic opponent beside it? That’s…
One of the primary complaints about gentrification is the displacement of the existing residents in a neighborhood. To reduce displacement, a growing number of cities are requiring developers to include affordable housing in exchange for permission to build a new housing project. These mandates violate the property rights of developers by interfering with their freedom…
In 2011, I purchased a boarded up home in the Sunnyside community of Houston. This low-income neighborhood was filled with similar homes. Many of these homes were in disrepair and hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint in decades. To call the area economically depressed would be an understatement. Yet, I took a risk and…
In the late 19th and early 20th century, a series of laws were enacted, primarily in Southern states, that mandated racial segregation. Blacks and whites could not stay in the same hotel, eat in the same dining room, or ride in the same railroad car. Interracial marriage was forbidden, and blacks could not own or…
In the early nineteenth century, textile workers in Britain burned mills and destroyed equipment to protest the increasing use of machinery. The machines were displacing them, allowing lower skilled workers to produce textiles more efficiently than previous methods. The Luddites, as the protesters were called, were opposed to the progress that technology was making possible….
Destruction has a negative connotation, but in fact, destruction can be a good thing. For example, since January 2020, much of the world’s focus has been on containing and destroying the coronavirus. Only a misanthrope would regard the destruction of the deadly virus to be bad because doing so means the elimination of something that…
Across the country, a coalition of property owners and political activists are trying to stop economic development in certain neighborhoods. They believe that investment in their community will do more harm than good. In many cities, neighborhoods close to downtown are being transformed from being economically depressed to vibrant hubs of commerce. New homes and…