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291 points mooreds | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.409s | source
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mothballed ◴[] No.45291409[source]
Property rights as conceived by Adam smith, John Locke, and even the most ruthless anarcho-capitalists like Murray Rothbard does not acknowledge the right of ownership of land from merely seeing it and declaring everyone else is blocked from accessing the next place. In all such systems, ownership is first derived from developing or homesteading the land.

People that own undeveloped land purely for the reason of blocking someone else do not have any place in the capitalist system. It is nice someone is working on undoing that, through the mechanisms they have available.

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whatever1 ◴[] No.45291523[source]
If you did not fight for it you don’t have ownership rights. The state owns the land. The rest of us are mere users of it.

For the many downvoters do this thought experiment: the neighbor country attacks and takes over your country. What is your ownership title worth? Exactly 0. Hence it was not yours to begin with.

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1. BenjiWiebe ◴[] No.45293014[source]
Doesn't that imply that ownership doesn't and can't exist?

What do you own that cannot be taken by force in some way or another?

Some non-physical stuff like happiness or sadness, maybe, except that if you were killed you wouldn't have those either.

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2. whatever1 ◴[] No.45294977[source]
It’s not a universal or god-given right. It’s a privilege granted to us by the state we reside in. People sacrificed their lives so that we could enjoy this benefit.

Therefore, when I encounter individuals in my generation who haven’t participated in any wars and assert that they own their land, not the state, I can’t help but believe they require a reality check.