The Economics of World Government

[powerofreason]

Dr. Hoppe speaks at Mises University: http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/

Its the newest Lew Rockwell podcast. Want to hear the pure truth from a 100% pro liberty genius? Tune in.

[BillyDkid]

I believe in property rights and that without them we can not have liberty, but it has never been clear to me how libertarianism deals with a situation where a single person or a relatively small group of people is able to accumulate all or practically all of a scarce resource. This is certainly not an unheard of situation and is certainly hypothetically as well as practically possible. If property rights were to be completely limited it would be theoretically possible for a single person or a small group of people to acquire and own enough of a scarce resource that it actually denies others the basic resources required to sustain life. An example would be nobles and serfs in old England where families essentially starved because ALL of the real property was "owned" by the nobles and it was a crime for a serf to hunt on the nobles property. Plausibly, a handful of the very richest people in America could buy up all of the property in the entire country and push everyone off it, leaving the rest of us without even the space to exist on the earth. There has to be some of limit to property rights. Without that, it is conceivable that a handful of people could own everything and the rest own nothing.

[NYgs23]

If property rights were to be completely limited it would be theoretically possible for a single person or a small group of people to acquire and own enough of a scarce resource that it actually denies others the basic resources required to sustain life. An example would be nobles and serfs in old England where families essentially starved because ALL of the real property was "owned" by the nobles and it was a crime for a serf to hunt on the nobles property.

Um, the nobles generally acquired that property through conquest. Remember William the Conqueror? Also, they did not allow their serfs the right to leave the property, which has no relation to any libertarian view of property rights. Legitimate property must be acquired, in origin, through homesteading: transforming an unowned resource through one's labor. How likely is it that a human being could acquire all land in the world through such means?

[powerofreason]

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