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Who are the "stakeholders"?  (Meet Emma the Environmentalist, Henry the Historian, and Elsie the Egalitarian)

By Pat Pending

These days, when government officials make decisions, they frequently say that they are acting on behalf of the “stakeholders”.  While “stakeholders” sounds something like “shareholders”, it turns out to have a very different meaning.  As we all know, “shareholders” are people who have bought shares of stock in a company, so they own a fractional part (shares) of the company.  This gives them a certain degree of control of the company, allowing them to vote for the board of directors, for example.  In contrast, “stakeholders” are people who have not invested any of their money to purchase property but want to control it anyway.  So, when government officials act on behalf of the "stakeholders", they actually are acting against the real owners.

Let's take a look at some of these "stakeholders" to see who they really are:

First, there is “stakeholder” Emma the environmentalist, who loves forests and green spaces and wants to preserve them. Emma has no interest in using her own money to buy the land she wants to preserve, preferring to have the government prevent property owners from building on their land.  Emma doesn’t realize that her success in stealing control of farms and forests from their rightful owners is creating an incentive for other property owners to develop their land quickly, before Emma has a chance to convince the government to “preserve” it.  As Emma returns to her tranquil home, with professionally-landscaped gardens and sculpted compost pile, she doesn't worry about the families who will be prevented from having a home like hers, thanks to her actions.  From Emma's point of view, she has what she wants, so now it's time to stop all further encroachments on Mother Nature, no matter how much it costs other people.

Then, there is “stakeholder” Henry the historian, who wants to preserve the historic buildings in his neighborhood, whether their owners like it or not.  Henry fights to prevent a church from tearing down its own old building to make room for a much-needed parking lot.  This impoverishes the church, but it does preserve the old building for a while longer, which brings Henry great personal satisfaction.  Henry also wants to tell people what color they can paint their homes and what renovations they can make.  Henry has no interest in using his own money to purchase these properties, because he prefers to use his trust fund to travel to historic sites around the world and collect rare antiques.  As Henry lies down in his antique brass bed at the end of the day, he feels very self-satisfied, knowing that he is truly helping to preserve the area's history, no matter what it costs his neighbors.

And don’t forget “stakeholder” Elsie the Egalitarian, who fights to make sure that developers are forced to build housing for low income people in the middle of a new tract of executive estates.  Elsie lives in a penthouse apartment overlooking the river, and she considers herself to be a very caring person. Like Emma and Henry, Elsie is opposed to "sprawl", and she detests the money-grubbing developers who build expensive new housing in the suburbs while ignoring the needs of "the poor".  She doesn’t realize that the success of her friends Emma and Henry in severely restricting the market for property has caused housing to become very expensive, putting it entirely out of reach of low income people -- whom she calls "the poor".  She only sees that "the poor" are struggling, and she wants to feel that she is helping them – again, of course, without actually opening her own checkbook.  Like Emma and Henry, Elsie thinks problems are best solved by using the government to cause someone else to make a sacrifice. (See also:  Economic ethnic cleansing by Thomas Sowell http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20020806.shtml

And making housing too expensive for blacks http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20020807.shtml)

So Emma, Henry, and Elsie are "stakeholders" -- people who are always ready to show how much they care -- as long as it is at someone else's expense.  In the old days, politicians and bureaucrats who trampled the rights of property owners would have been called tyrants or despots, and Emma, Henry, and Elsie would have been told to open up their own wallets or butt out, but today we want to be more sensitive.  Doesn't it sound ever-so-much nicer to say that we are respecting the "rights" of the "stakeholders"? 

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