Subject:
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Re: Is space property?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 2 Jan 2001 03:38:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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192 times
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Hmm, I've been thinking about this issue since before Chris posted (look
back and you'll find a thought exercise of mine dealing with someone
living on property which is totally surrounded by someone else's
property where that other person decides to keep anyone from going
through his property, and now what happens to the poor fellow trapped
within?).
I think a lot of the problem comes because the earths surface area has
not been fairly allocated. Almost everyone alive today is living on land
forcibly taken from someone else by their ancestors or themselves
(interesting side question - can anyone PROVE that their ancestors were
the first humans to set foot on a particular land mass?). Some of us
also may feel that animals have at least some rights (which if extended
in the right direction would raise the probability that ALL humans are
living on "stolen" land to very nearly 100%).
One thing which immediately becomes obvious is that rights are a human
creation (or a creation of God), and not a creation of nature. This does
not prevent us from using logic to determine what set of rights is the
correct one.
So what can we determine about our rights to "stuff"? The following are
my opinions:
0. Stuff may include things such as "space" (land, the air above it, a
particular orbit around the Earth, etc.), the products of our labor
(real goods, ideas, stories, etc.), our own self, and anything else you
can dream up.
1. With limited exceptions, we have the right to chose what to do with
our own self. We can chose how to be educated. We can chose what damage
we do to our bodies. We can chose what to do with our time.
2. With limited exceptions, we have the right to not have others take or
damage our "stuff".
3. One exception to 1 and 2 is that if we violate some one else's
"stuff", we can be forced to give up some of our "stuff" to compensate
them.
4. We have the right to when given "money" by someone else, not have
that "money" taken away from us (with limited exceptions - from here on
out, unless I explicitly state "with NO exceptions", it should be
assumed that there will be limited exceptions). "Money" is an abstract
human creation to express the value of "stuff". "Money" may be
documented in the form of physical objects such as metal disks stamped
with a pattern which expresses the value and the entity which is
guaranteeing that value. If we are given these physical objects as part
of a transaction of "money", then we have the same right to those
objects as we do to the "money" itself, subject to any limitations set
by the entity who produced the objects. It is our right to refuse to
accept those restrictions by refusing to accept the "money" in that
form. It is also the right of the person giving us the "money" to set
the condition on giving that "money" be that we accept it in a
particular form. Obviously the next question is what sorts of things
will result in someone giving us "money".
5. We have the right to our ideas. This right includes the right to not
have someone else claim our ideas as theirs. This right includes the
right to set the conditions under which our ideas may be passed on to
someone else. These rights exist no matter how we express the ideas.
6. We have the right to enter into a contract with someone else which
transfers some of our rights to the other. Contracts require explicit
acceptance. You have not agreed to a contract just by virtue of existing
some place at some time. You must take some action which enters you into
a contract, and such action must be reasonably expected to result in a
contract being entered into. All contracts may be broken under certain
circumstances. Circumstances which would allow a contract to be broken
would include:
- The other person not living up to their part in the contract.
- Deception on the part of the other person in describing the
contract.
- Irreconcilable logical contradictions in the contract.
7. One ramification of 6 is that it is pretty limited what kinds of
contracts your offspring can be subject to because of an agreement you
made.
Hmmm, I'm running out of steam and I haven't gotten to anything like
property yet... Well, have at it at what I've given above, and maybe
tomorrow or the next day, I'll get some more ideas to continue...
Frank
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Is space property?
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| Howdy and Merry Christmas all, As you probably know, I'm one of the property-rights be-all libertarians here. But I've been fixating on the role of land (or locations) as property. I have talked about the generation of property (e.g. jars of clay) (...) (24 years ago, 25-Dec-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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