Reply #83: The right of a man to feed himself is the most fundmental of rights

[Nevernose]

Beyond the right to safety, or fire departments, or health care, or education, or religious freedom, or even the right to personal property, the right for people to feed themselves is the foundation upon which all other freedom is built.

For me, the operative term in the article is "idle." We're not talking about taking away one man's right to farm their own land in favor of another's, we're talking about taking away one man's vacation home in order to feed several hundred families. Simple taxation.

My concern, though, is probably similar to yours: while this is, in my opinion, a worthwhile case, I'd hate to see a slippery slope of impounding everything formerly owned by rich people and giving it to the poor. The 20th century is all too filled with promising, benevolent governments that quickly turned into despotic regimes when it came time to ensure the right of the peasants to own land (Stalin and Mao come to mind).