Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts.
Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.
Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.
I am talking about projects for public benefit. Some things have to be built somewhere, after all.
And so it came to be, that money was the measure of everything.
I hate to border on strawman-building, but... what if I told you that you have to renounce your laptop, your telephone number, all your social media accounts, all your pictures, everything you've ever hold dear, right now, "for the good of the community"? Of course I'll pay you "accordingly" (up to a point, i.e. just enough to replace them). Would you take it?
For a lot of old people, relinquishing their homes means losing memories and likely being uprooted from the community they belong to, which is what they really care about. They don't care too much about their bank accounts, because they are aware that their time is short and what really matters for them is the connections they can still make, the history they can pass on.
That sort of thing doesn't have a price tag.
It still seems selfish...
In any case what is the point of the discussion if I say "if they pay accordingly" and you say "but they won't"?
Money as a measure for everything - it is just a convenient proxy for talking about the value of things. What is so bad about that? Should these people be paid off in other things? Like what?
I'm going to venture a guess that either you've never moved or if you have, you just threw nearly all your possessions out and started completely anew.
I'd rather it didn't exist, but I can see the need in the most extreme examples.
See for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_for_Billionaires
Edit: keeping on topic, there was a holdout when building a mall here in Uruguay, and they built the parking lot around his house:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Geant/@-34.8667764,-56.023...
there's a controversy in my country (Uruguay) because the state wants to apply Eminent Domain to a supposed landmark, because a study said 200 years ago it had been a campsite of the national hero:
http://www.diarioelpueblo.com.uy/destacados/el-hervidero-una...
But if they don't fulfill all of those requirements, I would probably still move if they increased the compensation offering enough.
Yes. That's why my first word was "Personally"
> and as mentioned above, money isn't everything.
Yes. That's why I wrote "compensated suitably" and "increased the compensation offering enough".
> Especially for old people, memories can be more of a comfort than cash, and losing your home inevitably means losing some of those memories.
That seems rather condescending to old people to me.