June 27, 2005

Cornwall: Kelo "a sad day for economic freedom."

Entrepreneurship professor Jeff Cornwall calls the Kelo decision "a sad day for the economic freedom of both the small businesses and the individual citizens of America." Cornwall, professor of management and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship , and also a blogger, writes:

I remember how angry I felt the day that the city of Richfield, MN announced that they would move to condemn people's houses and small businesses to allow Best Buy to build a new corporate headquarters. I did not know any of these people personally, but I was still angry about such an abuse of power. Private property is the foundation of our economy and our society. While there may be public projects important enough to require such drastic action, building a new corporate headquarters was not such a critical public good.

What was even more frustrating was that at that time I held an endowed chair in entrepreneurship and small business named after the late wife of Best Buy founder Richard Schulze.

Today the Supreme Court made such moves the law of the land. Not only will we now have to subsidize large corporations through tax breaks, but local governments can sweeten the deal even more by taking away our homes and our businesses to make way for these corporate giants to build their buildings wherever they like.