Land Allocation Rules are Necessary Kevin Carson’s Rejoinder to William Gillis As an alternative to what Will regards as the typical approach in advocating for a set of property rules — basically a sales pitch promoting the features of one compared to all the others — he proposes “one where we don’t exclusively compare prefigurative…

Land Appraisers Need Not Be Corrupted Existing Land Trusts Provide Us Ample Evidence While the rents of a land trust could be started with competitive bidding, I agree with Robert Kirchner that there should not be continuous bidding for plots of land. The land rents would be appraised by professionals. Robert is concerned that the…

Introduction The capitalist economy has gone through another shock, and the potential for another, larger one is on the horizon. While it’s seemingly in its death throes, capitalism continues to fuel growth. Under such a system we have seen a vast improvement in general living standards across the globe, despite rigged markets and the omnipresent…

The Attractions of Geo-Mutualism Appraisers Begone! I am neither a philosopher, nor an economist, nor a political scientist, and so I’ve found myself a bit out of my scholarly depth in this symposium. Prior to these exchanges, I had only slight understanding of Georgist land use proposals, and it had not occurred to me that…

Anarchism & Non-Domination Will says that I “[c]learly come from an anarcho-capitalist, individualist, strain of anarchism, which is not necessarily well-versed in the social strands of anarchism that see anarchism as synonymous with participatory decision-making processes, rather than simply voluntary association.” First of all: I do not consider myself an anarcho-capitalist. I take “capitalism” as…

Geo-mutualism Represents a Middle Ground William Schnack’s Reply to Jason Byas on Economic Rent Jason Byas asks Fred Foldvary which territory is due the rent. “Do I owe rent to the territory roughly corresponding with Decatur, Georgia? Or is it something more like the size of DeKalb County? Or is it to something the size…

The Organic Emergence of Property from Reputation Property as a Useful and Necessary Toil, Not a God For centuries radicals have debated alternative property systems, and I’m glad we’re having these conversations. But what has been consistently disappointing about them is how little they generally seek to explore the underlying roots of “property” itself. To be sure, all…

Humans Have a Moral Claim on Land and its Resources … and This Necessitates the Rental of Both Jason asks the important question of who is the relevant community to whom rent would be paid in a geoist (Georgist) system. Land rent comes from three basic sources: Natural features, commerce, and civic works. Regarding the rent due…

The Moral Irrelevance of Rent Jason Byas’s Response to Folvardy, Schnack and Kirchner In my initial response to Kevin Carson, I briefly asserted that rent from land is morally irrelevant in determining property norms. Three of the respondents in particular — Fred Foldvary, Robert Kirchner, and Will Schnack — clearly think differently. Thanks to their…

Occupancy-and-Use Reflects Moral Imperatives …Implied by Land’s Unique Scarcity, Kevin Carson responds to Jason Byas Jason starts out by accepting my blurred lines between Lockeanism and occupancy-and-use, and agreeing that the difference between them is largely a matter of degree: Non-Proviso Lockeanism is just occupancy-and-use with a higher threshold for constructive abandonment. And the proper…

How Rothbardians Occupy Part of the Occupancy-and-Use Spectrum Jason Byas’s Response to Kevin Carson Are We All Mutualists Now? Maybe: Lockeanism as Occupancy & Use The first thing to say in response to Kevin Carson’s opening essay is that he’s largely right. As this exchange’s representative Rothbardian, I agree with his suggestion that the differences…

Georgist System is Prudential Land Ownership Monopoly Results in Enslavement Kevin claims that I deny occupancy and use is relevant to legitimate appropriation. Kevin states that the choice of rules regarding the ownership of land “is a prudential matter.” However, if one believes that there exists a universal morality, an ethic that transcends culture and is…

Community Land Tax Negates True Ownership …and Indirectly Reinforces State Capitalism Fred begins by denying that occupancy and use is relevant to legitimate appropriation, so long as the “person has title to land, and pays its economic rent to the relevant community”; meeting such criteria amounts, “in effect, [to] occupying the land.” So in the…

Georgist Occupancy with Rent Community Rent Results in Fair and Optimal Use If a person has title to land, and pays its economic rent to the relevant community, then that person is, in effect, occupying the land. The economic rent is what a competitive tenant bids for the best use of the land. Suppose a…

Reaffirming Occupancy-and-Use Further Clarification in Response to Robert Kirchner Robert Kirchner is in the unusual position, in a symposium on occupancy-and-use land tenure, of defending it more uncompromisingly than my kick-off essay in favor of it. He emphasizes that he is “somewhat more doctrinaire” than me, and contrasts his position to my own of taking…

Use-and-Occupancy: Practical Issues Robert Kirchner’s Response to Kevin Carson I have no desire to exchange ‘salvos’ with anybody, least of all Kevin Carson, whose work I greatly admire, who has greatly helped me to clarify my own thought on a range of economic and political issues, and who has strengthened my hope in anarchist strategies…

Geo-Mutualism Offers Inter-Community Dispute-Resolution Carson’s Occupancy-and-Use Regime Has No Such Mechanism I’d like to thank Kevin Carson for taking the time to reply to my critique of his original statement. Before I continue to respond, I’d like to also take a quick moment to do something which I should have done in my first response,…

Geo-Mutualist Depictions of Occupancy-and-Use Fall Flat Carson Adresses Schnack’s Criticisms Will begins by questioning the extent to which non-Proviso Lockeanism and occupancy-and-use really do occupy a single “stickiness” spectrum: …[H]e acknowledges … that mutualism and neo-Lockeanism may exist on a spectrum in regards to conventions relating to abandonment and community reclamation. It is implied that capitalists…

Proudhon on Economic Rent An Addendum to William Schnack’s Response to Kevin Carson Due to the unorthodox claims made in my last response, I wanted to give some supporting material for my depiction of Proudhon’s take on economic rent. Think of this as a long footnote, rather than the heart of my argument. My position is…

Panarchy Flourishes Under Geo-Mutualism William Schnack’s Response to Carson’s Arbitrary Occupancy-and-Use Doctrine My position on occupancy and use is a little different than Kevin’s, and I dare suggest that it is the position nearest Proudhon’s original intentions. Though I do believe it is a component of the original mutualism, I have branded my stance “geo-mutualism,”…