The Enforcement Of Property Rights

in #freedom7 years ago


Source:

In Jeffery Tucker's "It's A Jetsons World" he writes on tailgating, parades, and waiting in line the grocery store as examples of mutual cooperation in regards to land ownership and the homesteading principle.

"The tailgaters gather at spots public and private. The private interests sell space to them for profit. The public authorities permit them to homestead the space because they are pressured to do so by public opinion. But it is far from being a free for all. Tailgating groups constitute private clubs and they congregate in the same space week after week in the football season, and year after year, even for decades. The groups manage themselves as clubs, with rules letting people in or out of the group. Some are run like dictatorships and others like democracy, but, in each case, the members consent to the management structure."![Villa.jpg]

Tucker later argues that this does not contradict Locke's rule of mixing labor to homestead space because "When public property is truly in demand, it is effectively privatized by the actions of individuals who understand that ownership precedes order."

But, by what authority do people at a tailgate essentially privatize the land by their actions? And how do private entities maintain their ability to sell access to the space if any group can make the space free through intense public demand?

I argue that property rights can be best maintained by a sort of government that has the ability to enforce others making false claims on ownership. Otherwise, ownership enforcement would be maintained by whoever has the ability to hire the most force or on public opinion that can change rapidly.