Brian Points: The Quibbling Rabble: The History and Future of US Housing Policy

The George Buchanan Forum

Believe it or not, land use policy and its array of offshoots form one of the most hotly contested political issues in the USA today. Topics such as comprehensive plans, conditional use permits, re-zoning, and variances are keeping some of your neighbors up at night. With materials and development costs skyrocketing, state and local elected officials are desperately looking for answers that can pull some of the authority away from the rabble that dispute development at every turn. The deep irony here is that the "local control" that Conservatives so deeply desire has led to policy resulting from a small group of citizens' narrowly defined self-interests. So, how should we change our collective thinking about land use? Should the federal government play a more active role to reinforce our fundamental rights? And, how can other lessons of economics provide us some guidance? George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at... https://www.tgbf.orghttps://www.facebook.com/TheGeorgeBuchananForum