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It's not quite as easy with the ocean. Land doesn't tend to flow around freely.
by Sangermaine 9y ago
It's not quite as easy with the ocean. Land doesn't tend to flow around freely.
- duncan_bayne 9y agoAnd the ocean is _deep_, too, and it's much easier to pollute your neighbours. But the basic principle is the same: private property rights can help mitigate these problems.
- Retric 9y agoTell that to the 1322+ Superfund sites in the US costing ~1 billion per year. The optimum strategy for small land ownership is often maximum exploitation. In the case of the ocean fishing people would fish as much as possible, and just wait for more fish to wonder back.
- duncan_bayne 9y agoYeah that's because your bankruptcy laws are broken AFAICT - it's too easy to hold insufficient funds for post operational clean-up, then transfer assets elsewhere and declare bankruptcy. That is, private owners in this case are able to socialise the cost of their operation, which is no more private ownership than when the profits are socialised.