Locked History Attachments

StatistFallacies/PublicProperty

Fallacy:

Like any property owner, the state has a right to charge people whatever it wants for the use of "public" (state-owned) property.

Some even go as far as to say that either libertarians should not use this "public" property, or that if they use without paying the demanded rate (sometimes throwing out the red herring that "other people have paid into it"), they are stealing.

Response:

Public property is first a fraud, in that it is state-controlled and not publicly owned. If "the public" (everyone) owned the property, then everyone would control it; and control is a right of exclusion and use. A member of the public cannot build a house on so-called "public" property, nor sell it to someone else; hence the right term is state-controlled property.

Why not "state-owned"? The state has no property of its own. Everything it has it took by force, and while superior might does allow them to act in all ways as owner, they do not justly own anything. Everything claimed by the state is either stolen goods that should be returned, or unowned property that should be left for individuals or groups to claim via Homesteading.

As to the claim that libertarians shouldn't use said "public" property, we see that it is not public, but unowned, and anyone may legitimately use it; furthermore, libertarians are also extorted for taxes to pay for it, so their claim as as good as any other. As to the claim of stealing, the goods are stolen already, or, it's not possible to steal an unowned resource. The fact that other people have been extorted to pay for it is merely a Fallacies/RedHerring. (DBR)