Reply #34: I add my name to those praising you

[mrreowwr_kittty]

Very succinct and well-reasoned post. It seems that the average person is increasingly expected to be an expert on taxation, banking, health care, real estate, civil law, etc. etc....while the people who are PAID to be the experts are given a free pass for incompetence, negligence, and outright mendacity.

A perfect example of this is what's happening in my community right now. Back in the '80s a freeway plan was approved which included upgrading a surface street to accomodate projected highway traffic. Shortly after that, the funding fell through and the project was delayed indefinitely. In the meantime, developers were issued permits to build houses in the affected area. Now they have decided that they desperately need to complete the project in order to relieve traffic conditions in other areas. So several hundred families are slated to have their homes razed. There are also schools and churches that will be demolished. These people will be compensated but the remaining homeowners, the ones who didn't get their homes taken, will not be compensated for the loss in value due to having a big, honking freeway running through their backyards spewing diesel fumes 24/7.

Obviously, this represents a failure of planning on many levels. It could have been avoided had the state transportation agency simply purchased the affected land in advance. Barring that, the city did not have to issue building permits. The developers and real estate agents should have known what was proposed and made sure to inform potential buyers of the risk. But who is bearing the brunt of the blame on the editorial pages and in the public discourse? You guessed it. The homeowners. They "should have done their homework" according to the armchair scolds. This despite the fact that the major developer of the houses declared to a reporter that he became aware of the freeway expansion a week before the announcement that it would be done.

I blame the right wing media largely for perpetuating this attitude.