---John Foster wrote:
>
> RE: spirit
>
> I think this post is a very authentic reply to what may be
considered a
> focus on some of the negativities surrounding 'rights' regarding
property.
> Private property is not the absolute use of land for any and all uses
> what-so-ever. Private property is a bundle of 'rights' to use and
enjoy
> land. Is there a 'real consensus' about which negativities
contradict the
> tenets of sustainability and criteria to progress towards
sustainability?
>
> There many negativities that affect property rights. A short list of
them
> would suffice:
>
> 1. Exclusive use,
> 2. Degradation of productivity,
> 3. Infringement of adjacent property owners enjoyment of land
> [including public landowners],
> 4. Underuse of scarce resources,
> 5. Abandonment of structures, facilities, and stewardship,
> 6. Destruction of amenities that are public or private, and
> 7. Abandonment of the needy [forced relocation of dependent
peoples to
> otherwise poorer settings].
With regards to 1) the exclusive use aspect is why it is called
private property. To change this you are no longer talking about
private property but something else.
As for 4) I am completely baffled. I would think this is a good
thing. Not using up all of a scarce resource.
As for 3) this is the externality problem. Clearly my neighbors would
suffer a loss if I decided to turn my garage into a commercial
endeavor repairing cars. There would be less parking, more pollution,
etc. Clearly these are bad things for my neighbors (as well as form
me, but presumably the additional income I recieve more than offsets
these losses). The solution is to either make me pay for the costs I
am imposing on my neighbors in terms of units of "output" or to have
my neighbors pay me to reduce (or even stop) running my business from
my garage. Another solution is to legally remove my right to run a
business from my garage. This last one assumes that I currently have
the right to run such a business. One of the big problems with
regards to property is that the rights are usually not clearly
defined. Do I have the right to burn leaves in my backyard and make
the air in my neighbors yard smokey? Or does he have the right to
smoke free air?
Steve
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