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Who owns water? The US landowners putting barbed wire across rivers
- shaki-dora 9y agoI’m pretty sure this was the exact example of “rent-seeking” in my economics textbook.
- eesmith 9y agoNew Mexico has a long history of landowners screwing others over water rights. John Nichols' New Mexico Trilogy ("The Milagro Beanfield War" is the first and best known book) covers some of the problems. In addition to the premise for that story, another example was water rights by seniority, but they depend on the fields being in use. But when men are conscripted to fight in WWII, they can't plant, so they lose their water rights. While the rich (and Anglo) landowners can hire people to make sure they maintain their rights. There are other examples in the series.