Wyatt's Torch: Should there be limits on ownership of natural reso

[Spiral Architect]

No, because they don't own the Gulf of Mexico- unlike Wyatt, who owned the land and property that he torched.

Edit: Didn't see this before, but SA said it better:

As a side question, would bodies of water be privatized in a laissez-faire society?

Like DA said, I can see lakes being privatized but oceans are problematic. The major issue I see is that there is no governing body that can provide jurisdiction to support your property rights on something like an ocean. To claim an ocean, you would have to form your own governing body to protect and enforce your claim. That sounds like an anarchist’s dystopia at first blush. Perhaps someday when we hit the stars and there are governing bodies to support whole swathes of planets this would be practical (that would make an interesting sci-fi story).

[Swerve of Shore]

Some splendid discussion here. I especially like Spiral Architect's discussion of John Locke and this:

After the rights issue is mentioned, it should be considered as to whether these goals you seek about not "wasting" resources are really best achieved through market mechanisms or governmental decree. The market will actually be more effective with regard to preventing waste, as owners who are actually secure in the capital value of their property (as Wyatt decidedly was not) will face the incentive to plan the use of their resources over a long period of time, whereas government is populated by temporary interchangeable caretakers who are bound by the next election. They face the incentive to bring about short term planning in the absence of price signals, bringing about uneconomic exhaustion of the resource.

Thank you all for taking on my question.

[Skylab72]

Oceans are admittedly problematic, especially for something like fishing where the recourse is mobile. You could end up with a tragedy of the commons scenario for that. I don’t have an easy answer off the top of my head and will have to chew on it. I can see that being very complicated however even if you do assume rational trade partners bordering the ocean.

For drilling, however, if you own property then you are within the jurisdiction of a governing body and mineral rights would be delineated through property rights.

It is not even that easy just because it is on land. The resources underground tend to pool in formations that are hard to accurately map and never follow manmade boundaries. It really is the same problem, land or sea.