PAUL C ROBERTS—In the United States and generally across the Western world, property rights exist only in a narrow, truncated form. A developer can steal your view forever and your solitude for the period his construction requires. If the Japanese can have property rights in views, in quiet which requires noise abatement, and in sun fall on their property, why can’t Americans? After all, we are alleged to be the “exceptional people.”
China is deemed autocratic for providing basic needs at subsidized prices instead of charging whatever the market can bear.—Michael Hudson
