If you examine nearly any debate regarding government policy, almost all of the discussion revolves around government imposing more restrictions and controls on businesses and individuals. It might seem that proposals to eliminate single-family zoning (SFZ) are an exception and a move towards greater respect for individual rights. But that appearance is a mirage.
Most of those who support eliminating SFZ, such as President Biden, do not do so because land-use regulations violate individual rights. Their argument focuses on the harm that exclusionary zoning imposes upon low-income households and “people of color.” The goal isn’t the restoration of property rights, but rather, providing benefits to one group or another.
As the term implies, individual rights are founded on individualism. “Individualism,” writes Ayn Rand,
regards man—every man—as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights—and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members.
Most opponents of SFZ do not regard individuals as independent, sovereign entities. These opponents regard the alleged well-being of the collective as supreme. To collectivists, the individual is subordinate to the favored group. To collectivists, the individual has value only to the extent that he serves the group.
It is true that SFZ harms low-income households and “people of color.” But it also harms high-income households and whites. SFZ harms every individual by restricting the right to use property as one chooses. The opponents of SFZ are not taking that stance based on principles. For them, it is a matter of political expediency.
Eliminating SFZ is proper. But that should not be done merely because it is politically popular. SFZ should be eliminated because that would be the just thing to do.