This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, April 23rd,

2024. I'm Caleb Brown. In North Carolina, it's a case of government

handouts for an automaker running headlong into the property rights of local

residents.

In the inaugural issue of Cato's new magazine Free Society, Paul Best outlines North Carolina's

attempt to deliver some benefits to the Vinfast Corporation,

and in doing so challenging property owners whose homes now hang in the balance.

Who is Lena Stone?

Lena Stone is a long time resident of Chatham County, North Carolina.

It's in the central part of the state about 30 miles south of the research triangle.

She's lived there since the 1970s. She built a house there

when she moved there in the 1970s and it's the same place that she raised her kids and

then her grandkids.

She lived and worked there.

She owns multiple properties.

And she's kind of rented them out to friends and family,

but she's really made her life there.

She's now in her 70s and in the summer of 2022

she learned that a Vietnamese electric vehicle company called

Vinfast was going to build a large four billion dollar electric vehicle plant

there. This is great.

VINFAST promised to bring 7,500 jobs, lots of grand promises.

...