[ExI] Privatization and so called public "ownership"/was Re: Americans are poor drivers

[Mirco Romanato]

Stathis Papaioannou ha scritto:

>> Also, in the case of roads, where former private owners can't be found -- as in the case where they and their heirs are dead or untraceable -- then the proper thing to do is to put them back into the state of unclaimed properties and allow them to be homesteaded.  (And not everyone would have an equal right to homestead here -- unlike with purely unowned items.  Why?  Some -- specifically, those in government and those, more or less directly connected to government, cannot have an equal claim to homestead as their actions or the actions of their criminal organizations served to place or maintain such properties in a state where their original owners lost them or could not get them back.  Thus, in former socialist nations, the party members should NOT have any claims on factories or other stolen property.)

> Homesteading is one way of distributing public land. Perhaps there are
> other ways. Who should decide what is the best and fairest thing to
> do?

The problem on returning stolen goods to their original owners is that
often they don't exist any more.
Homesteading is, IMHO, the best way to let people take land not owned by
anyone. But land owned by the government that must free itself of it, it
is better sold at the higher bidder (in small lots) and the money used
to repay the debts of the government. If any money are left, divide it
between the citizens.

It could not be the perfect solution, but it would be, at least, equally
unjust with all.

> Why insist that homesteading is the only just way to do things? Why
> not say, for example, that land belongs to the collective, and anyone
> who uses land must lease it from the collective, as per Henry George?

Collectives don't exist.
They are fictions between individuals.
Take away the individuals and the collective disappear.

Mirco