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I think your parent mostly has a problem with excludability exercised at the extremes, e.g. sprawling private golf course that is empty except for the five days

by ip26 8y ago

I think your parent mostly has a problem with excludability exercised at the extremes, e.g. sprawling private golf course that is empty except for the five days a year the owner visits. I can sympathize, with goods I'm not that concerned but the thought of (for example) a small group of people locking up the world's limited amount of beachfront, riverfront, and lakefront for themselves seems deeply wrong.

kbutler 8y ago
Note that excludability was added as a late edit. The original comment just said something like "In my preferred world, no single person would be able to afford a large yacht, but yacht enthusiast clubs could own one." I agree on the excludability issue, but I'm not sure where it ends. I'd also add beautiful mountain valleys, etc. Forests? Interesting deserts? Waterfalls? Intellectual techniques? (at least patents have limited time) Cultural stories? cultural clothing? Foods? I'm not sure how to balance "my family earned money/had power a long time ago, so I can exclude anyone else from this forever" with "I want to work hard and save to provide for my family". I wonder if there will need to be a change in what can be passed on to future generations (we no longer allow political power to be inherited, does it make sense for economic power?). Can eminent domain play a role in the public re-acquiring assets? Both of those have really scary implications, though...