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Land Ownership Makes No Sense

wired.com

31–40 of 73 posts

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#31
In the broad context of history, I acknowledge that land ownership is kind of a myth. I kind of think of the little bit of land that I own as almost sort of a "lease" from the government. I really only get to "own" it so long as we have a functional government and market.

While I broadly agree with the ideas of Georgism as well as LVT, I hate the framing of this article. It largely devolves into false moralisms and crazy talk.

Land ownership still makes sense! The goal of private land ownership, especially in America, was to broadly distribute the stakeholders of political power. And in a way it's kind of what makes our society stable.

Even Henry George was against collectivisation! If anything, his whole body of work was "since we still need private people to own land, here's how better adapt a policy perspective".

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#32
post #29
post #6

It makes no sense in a world where collectives of people can make sane decisions in a timely manner. We don't live in that world - for anything to get done, there must be a very small group of people with authority to decide what color to paint the bike shed. Land ownership is important exactly because it gives responsibility over what happens in a geographic area to a single entity, and excludes most people from pro…

You'll get more out of the article if you read it as more of a philosophical exploration than a literal policy proposal. You can share similar values without reaching the same conclusion.

These philosophical explorations have a really nasty pattern of being picked up as the policy platform of political strongmen riding a wave of discontentment to power. Then the philosophical exploration becomes poorly-implemented policy.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#33

Another quality wired article that makes no sense. Someone is going to own land. Either you or the government. So it is immoral for the private citizen to own land, but moral for the historically corrupt, ruthless, and often-times tyrannical government to own it? This circle doesn't square. I often ask myself where wired writers get their weed. If I had to guess, it is from a private grower who owns his own land.

It should be easy to provide a high quality rebuttal then.

Haven't they already? Land ownership makes sense to beasts and man. Someone is going to take advantage of a plot of land and historically use it to reproduce or otherwise propagate their living will. Even electrons can't occupy the same space at the same time.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#34
post #6

It makes no sense in a world where collectives of people can make sane decisions in a timely manner. We don't live in that world - for anything to get done, there must be a very small group of people with authority to decide what color to paint the bike shed. Land ownership is important exactly because it gives responsibility over what happens in a geographic area to a single entity, and excludes most people from pro…

Maybe you don't live in that world, but I sure do. Only few people actually care enough to show up for any decision, and they can usually come to agreement fairly quickly.

The only times I have experienced trouble has been when people have had the prejudice that "democracy obviously doesn't work" so they make a big stink about not getting their way (how ironic!) instead of focusing on the decision at hand. Those people can usually be trained out of that mindset with a little skilled facilitation. Those that cannot are free to move somewhere where a third party owns the land they're on.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be easy to provide a high quality rebuttal then.

Haven't they already? Land ownership makes sense to beasts and man. Someone is going to take advantage of a plot of land and historically use it to reproduce or otherwise propagate their living will. Even electrons can't occupy the same space at the same time.

> Land ownership makes sense to beasts and man.

Yeah that’s why I’ve never seen a dog, cat, mole, mouse, squirrel, etc. on my personally owned property.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#36
post #13

Posting articles behind paywalls makes no sense.

It makes complete sense. HN is a technical audience…usually. The posters assume that you are technical as well and that you are using a paywall bypass extension for your browser. They are literally a Google, Reddit or GitHub search away.

I wish my iOS browser allowed extensions.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be easy to provide a high quality rebuttal then.

Haven't they already? Land ownership makes sense to beasts and man. Someone is going to take advantage of a plot of land and historically use it to reproduce or otherwise propagate their living will. Even electrons can't occupy the same space at the same time.

We are repeating 150 year old debates now. Occupation and possession aredifferent concepts. If you personally use a plot of land to reproduce you're well entitled to that. If you merely stake your claim to potentially use the land how you want at some point in the future, that's a different concept.

It's like the difference between sitting on a seat on the bus and claiming five different seats on the bus "in case you want a different one later", or because "you're expecting your friends to join later" or "to charge other passengers for your seating service." In times of abundance, go ahead. If those seats are the only unoccupied ones left? Scram.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#38
post #32
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll get more out of the article if you read it as more of a philosophical exploration than a literal policy proposal. You can share similar values without reaching the same conclusion.

These philosophical explorations have a really nasty pattern of being picked up as the policy platform of political strongmen riding a wave of discontentment to power. Then the philosophical exploration becomes poorly-implemented policy.

Maybe future historians will appreciate your explanation of something that everyone today knows. Nobody is stopping you from talking about what you value and how to incorporate those values into policy design. Other people are participating in public discourse the way they want. If you don't participate the way you want, that's on you.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#39

Another quality wired article that makes no sense. Someone is going to own land. Either you or the government. So it is immoral for the private citizen to own land, but moral for the historically corrupt, ruthless, and often-times tyrannical government to own it? This circle doesn't square. I often ask myself where wired writers get their weed. If I had to guess, it is from a private grower who owns his own land.

> Someone is going to own land. Either you or the government.

It does not have to be black and white. You can own the land but with restrictions and accommodations. Also, tyrants tend to be individuals. I don't like the idea of some tech tycoon buying up all our farmland.

Re: Land Ownership Makes No Sense

#40
post #4

Wired coming out swinging with an actual socialist/leftist/communist article? Color me impressed. In the states, the Democrats are often mislabeled as a lefty party, or mislabeled as socialists. People will call CNN Marxist. They really, really aren't. It's fascinating to see a major publisher going out on a limb to publish something like this.

I'm old enough to remember when Wired wrote interesting tech articles. I don't think we need another left-wing rag.
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