[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Feb 13, 2008 3:02 PM, Damien Sullivan <phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 10:10:33PM -0500, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>
> > BTW, the point of not being a slave to others is not "accumulating as
> > many goodies as possible" but being free to choose. I refuse to accept
> > the legitimacy of any peremptory claims on my life, time and property.
>
> What if you were born in the Netherlands, and were told you had to do
> your fair share of work to maintain the dikes without which you'd be
> underwater?
>
### All landowners in the Netherlands have an incentive to maintain
dikes, for obvious reasons. It could be also claimed that letting a
dike fail on you property, which would inundate your neighbors, would
be a harm inflicted on them, and could make you liable for damages
(just like setting fires on your property makes you liable for the
destruction of your neighbors' property should your fire spread). A
Coasian bargain among property owners could produce a network of
interdependent legal claims, in close parallel to the physical
structure of the dikes. Naturally, costs stemming from such bargains
would be a part of any rental agreement, and would further be
incorporated, fully voluntarily, into the prices of goods.

So yes, living in Liberlands I would pay my fair, market share of dike
costs, with every transaction I make, and no goons in sight to make
peremptory claims on me.

Rafal