Please check out Glenn Reynold's piece on Columbia University and the City of New York stealing land through eminent domain. The lead is great, and it reminds me of how the New York Times puts “property rights” in quotation marks:
We often hear politicians and pundits denounce property rights. Property rights, we're told, protect the fat cats against the needs of the public. They're a tool for keeping the little guy down.
Like a lot of what we hear from politicians and pundits, this is exactly the opposite of the truth. The fat cats don't need the protection of property rights, because they already control the political system.
