RE: Re: More Hatteras Village

So for Hatteras Village, creating more government via incorporation is the answer?

Ideally, local government is the only government that should exist. As Nick responded:

I cannot speak for Steve, but what my initial post was saying is that currently all major decisions regarding zoning is being made by a government more than an hour away. Most of the elected officials and all of the staff decision makers are from Manteo. I know because I once worked for Dare Planning. If they incorporate, decisions will be made by the local people. It may not seem like it, but there is a big difference between Manteo and Hatteras. The local people know this and some realize they essentially have little say in gov issues, but many are hung up on the "evils" of municipal government. However if they structure it themselves, they can have regulations conducive to their ideals and ways of life.

Government is not a quantity, so "more government" is disingenuous (yes, I know, all sides of the political spectrum use the term). The problem with government and its size is in the application. If Hatteras Village incorporates in order to take their destiny into their own hands, that is far more preferable than the solution that Behethland was sneaking up on, but would never admit to: state or federal regulation of development.

Municipal government and its cousin zoning are not intrinsically evil (unlike national government or even state government). What makes a municipal government evil is when it seeks to grow itself into benevolence. The ordinary functions of small government are most efficiently demonstrated in localities: pick up the trash, provide fire protection, limited zoning.

As I said before, the actual better solution is for state and federal governments to stop subsidizing development on the coast with disaster aid and insurance bailouts. If Dixon and Hoyle were faced with subsidizing some very expensive insurance themselves, the profitability of the project would probably decline to the point that they would have looked somewhere else. That's the market solution. Unfortunately, Hatteras Village will be unlikely to wait around for state and federal government to become enlightened to the market solution, so the next best solution is to incorporate and take matters into their own hands. The difference between a statist and a libertarian is that the libertarian will look for the market solution first and the government solution second while the statist looks only for the government solution.