Currently viewing the tag: "property rights"

Land From The Ground Up

By On April 27, 2012 · 11 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Libertarianism, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

Our days are a vast, intricate, evolving dance of mutual understandings.1 We stop at a traffic light, offer a plastic card as payment for a meal, leave our weapons at home, or enter a voting booth. We live and work in close proximity, at high speed, with few collisions: on our roads and [...]

Continue Reading →

On Burdens, Community, and Provisos

By On April 26, 2012 · 3 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

First, I would like to thank all those commentators who responded to what I wrote in “Natural Rights and Natural Stuff.”  Second, I would like to clarify or restate a few of the basic points that I sought to make in that contribution.

To begin with, I did [...]

Continue Reading →

In Defense — Such As It Is — of Usufructory Land Ownership

By On April 26, 2012 · 49 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

I may be writing under false pretenses. Although I was invited here to make a case for the “occupancy-and-use” or usufructory land property theory of P.J. Proudhon, J.K. Ingalls and Benjamin Tucker, I’m going to devote most of this article to what it has in common with other libertarian [...]

Continue Reading →

Self-Ownership and External Property

By On April 25, 2012 · 88 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Rights Theory, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

What kind of external property rights are consistent with self-ownership?

It seems to me that once one acknowledges self-ownership, one cannot acknowledge any other rights unless those rights are themselves grounded in self-ownership.

How so? Well, the difference between rights and other moral claims is that rights are legitimately enforceable. So any limits that [...]

Continue Reading →

Progress or Poverty: The Economics of Land and Discovery

By On April 25, 2012 · 41 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

David Friedman recently wrote “One reason to respect natural rights is that it is a good thing to do, another is that respecting them can be expected to produce a healthier, wealthier, and happier world than violating them.” It is in that spirit that I approach the issue of this symposium: since [...]

Continue Reading →

The Geolibertarian Ethics of Land Rent

By On April 25, 2012 · 30 Comments · In Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

I coined the term “geolibertarian” in 1981 to designate the branch of libertarian philosophy which deems the natural rent to equally belong to human beings.

Public finance theory prescribes land rent as an efficient source of public revenue.  The issue here is whether there is harmony between what is economically efficient and what is morally [...]

Continue Reading →

Comments on Hillel Steiner’s Essay on Rights

By On April 24, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Book/Article Reviews, Left-libertarianism, Rights Theory, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

Note: the following is a review of Hillel Steiner’s Essay on Rights that was originally published in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 26, no. 2 (June, 1996), pp. 283-302. The criticisms it presents appear to apply to Steiner’s current views, including those presented in his

Continue Reading →

Left-Libertarianism and the Ownership of Natural Resources

By On April 24, 2012 · 21 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Left-libertarianism, Libertarianism, Rights Theory, Symposium on Libertarianism and Land

To start off: Why should libertarians be bothered about, specifically, rights to natural resources?1 Why single out these entitlements, rather than looking at property rights in general and asking how any of them can be justified, if they can be justified at all? After all, the domain of distributive justice – of moral [...]

Continue Reading →

Property, Liberty, and the Deserving Poor

By On February 7, 2012 · 15 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Book/Article Reviews, Current Events, Libertarianism

Despite the exciting title, I suppose this is really just an overblown links post. First, a couple of (relative) quickies:

First, Terrance Tomkow has an interesting post on “The Origins of Property.” It draws on some of his earlier posts on “The Retributive Theory of Property” and, more generally, [...]

Continue Reading →

The Morality of Occupying Private Property

By On December 21, 2011 · 25 Comments · In Current Events, Libertarianism

So as the Occupy movement switches tactics to occupy foreclosed homes, I pose the following questions for my colleagues here at BHL and the commentariat:

1. Given that many of those homes are the property of the very same banks who were bailed out with their/our tax dollars, is there any reason to object to [...]

Continue Reading →
Set your Twitter account name in your settings to use the TwitterBar Section.