A Bit of Good News on 60 Minutes  Often I am told that my
observations are negative, and that's true. I protest the loss
of liberty. But behind that lies my most positive idea, namely,
that free men and women are better at solving problems than
those in chains ' even in chains that are quite long.  This
time, however, there is some good news. Mike Wallace surprised
me with a segment on Sunday's, September 28th, 60 Minutes on CBS
TV, one that exposed without much mercy the dastardly way
governments make use of eminent domain. This is the legal
provision governments use to take private property for public
use, one, however, that's been grossly abused over the years.
'Public use' would normally mean building court houses, police
stations, military bases and a few other bona fide public
projects, ones that are supposed to benefit everyone as
citizens. That's what 'public' is supposed to mean in a free
society'-I argued this in my book, Private Rights and Public
Illusions (Transaction Books, 1995).  Nowadays, how