By: Jennifer Lawson-Zepeda There’s a new sheriff in town! An
underwater sheriff. This sheriff is about to pull up the home
owners who have underwater loans, and rescue them; or maybe not.
What is ’eminent domain,’ you may be asking? According to most
explanations, it is the right of a government or its agent, to
expropriate private property for public use with payment of
compensation. Generally, this is used to claim properties the
government feels may be in the way of a public use project. For
instance, a tract of homes that may lie right in the path of
where a new freeway will be built. The government will purchase
these homes at highly reduced prices (under the eminent domain
act) and claim the land for public use projects, like freeways.
Well how does that work to help homeowners? In San Bernardino
County, they’ve found a new use for expropriation. And it has
all the sights and sounds of that God-feared word that
capitalists hate…socialism! Well…that is, if you get right down
to the basics of agrarian lan