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Say everybody has ten acres of land, because we've taken all the land and divided it out among the world's population. Let's leave aside, for a moment, that's
by gozur88 9y ago
Say everybody has ten acres of land, because we've taken all the land and divided it out among the world's population. Let's leave aside, for a moment, that's pretty much impossible, since everybody will want beachfront property in Hawaii, say, and not a patch of desert in BFE.
Now say I have fifteen children, and you have one. In the next reallocation, do we really divide out the land such that my family ends up with fifteen times the land your family has? Think about the incentives that kind of scheme creates.
Furthermore, there's a tragedy of the commons problem. If we all own the land, or it gets re-divided every generation, I have no reason to improve it. I'll get rich turning my land into a toxic wasted dump, because I don't have any interest in maintaining its value.
In the end, that's why we have property ownership. People don't take care of things they don't own.
- anigbrowl 9y agoThis argument assumes its conclusion, as well as relying on some extreme edge cases (how many people have 15 children in real life? Hardly anyone). Also, I'll take that patch of desert, not least because I like my solitude.
- crdoconnor 9y agoYou don't have to give everybody 10 acres of land, and in any case, not every 10 acres is as valuable as every other. You can let everybody rent their land, according to its value from the state and distribute the income equally. That way the land will be used efficiently. The incentives that creates are better than the incentives we have right now. Either you pay eye watering rents to the state to live in a house on the immensely valuable land of downtown San Francisco or you yield the land to a property developer who will build high rises that will match the massive demand there is for people to live there. There are more (and better) solutions to the tragedy of the commons than just privatizing everything and, as we can see, people don't necessarily take care of the things they do own. Anti-dumping laws exist for a reason.
- Can_Not 9y agoBut you wouldn't literally divide natural asserts evenly, you would structure society arround not having rent seekers be a parasite on your right to a good, water, and shelter.