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Another example of loss of freedom is the "smart growth" anti-free market, anti-property rights programs pushed on citizens by federal,state and local governments.

In smart growth cities, urban boundaries cage people into a particular geographic area,preventing land owners outside the area from using their land for homes. The people inside the area are forced by the government, either by law or by paying off local officials to only build and live in "cluster developments" or on transportation hubs. This type of development is going on in Sacramento CA right now. Taxpayer money is used to pay cities to build in such a way that private automobile ownership becomes untenable. They do this by refusing to keep up the infrastructure, paving roads and adding lanes to support the growth they force with infill development. Then they repurpose streets for bicycles and buses, or redesign them with "traffic calming" devices that make driving hazardous and tediously slow.

Another neat little trick they use is a compact with the developer, either granting money outright or by granting tax incentives, so that the developer will not build in enough parking for their apartment complexes. Some developers even sign covenants with the government to restrict parking, water use and energy use in their buildings, that is enforced on the tenants.

They don't necessarily enact a law that says "you are not allowed to own an automobile" or you only get 17 gallons of water a day per person, but when they coerce local and state governments to go against all reason and encourage them not to protect individual rights but to enact collectivist anti-car housing policies, the outcome is the same. Freedoms are lost.

"They don't necessarily enact a law that says "you are not allowed to own an automobile" or you only get 17 gallons of water a day per person, but when they coerce local and state governments to go against all reason and encourage them not to protect individual rights but to enact collectivist anti-car housing policies, the outcome is the same. Freedoms are lost."

I agree. My focus was on national rights, however. At the national level, and in Red States, we've grown progressively more free (e.g. negating Jim Crow laws, enacting CCW laws, national repeal of the old firearms restrictions against commercial airline pilots, legalizing gold and alcohol ownerships again, repeal of the national 55 mph speed limit, etc.).

In contrast, what's happened in California and Massachusetts should serve as examples of what the rest of the world should strive to avoid or overturn, but 3rd Party activists aren't going to enact change in those Blue areas, anyway.

Likewise, the leftists aren't going to get such nonsense past very many Red state Republicans, either.

Open space laws are another example of the same thing. Cities use taxpayer funds to buy or to coerce concessions of property (through selective use of zoning laws). Ostensibly it is to provide "open space". But then you notice homes being built on tiny 1/4 acre plots. And we can only wonder what happened under the table.