Government land is actually owned by something — the legal corporate entity known as the government. A government can own things in the same way a corporation can own things, and it can make whatever rules it wants about how that property is used and who has access to it. It’s property, but not private property. I’m not even sure you can call government property “the commons” in any proper sense, either. I know of many examples from other parts of the world of common, collective tenureship/use of land built on custom and culture and “policed” by whatever local legal structures and common law has evolved. Those are, by no means, remotely the same as government ownership.

The key point is that this is done not for taxpayers, but for citizens (and foreigners residing legally), for whom governments (in our American example) allegedly hold, maintain and manage property on behalf of. Citizenship is what counts. Taxpayers are merely citizens (and non-citizens) compelled to pay the government something because the law allows the government to compell that payment upon pain of death. And a taxpayer has no more legal right to access government property than a non-taxpayer.

You could, I suppose, lobby elected representatives or hold a special election to change the rules and prevent non-taxpayers from using public parks. That, however, sounds more Republican than Libertarian to me. (When I was in northern Utah, some land owners would occasionally grumble that non-property owners should not be allowed to vote for property tax levvies.) What constitutes a non-taxpayer? Someone who doesn’t get a bill from the county assessor? Are you suddenly going to issue new taxpayer ID cards, in addition to drivers licenses and social security cards and passports and whatnot, that police can suddenly inspect any time they want as they wander through parks? Does payment of sales tax count? Will I have to buy something every time I want to rest my feet or sit in the shade in a city park and keep a wallet full of recent reciepts lest some police officer haul me off to jail?

The Best of Charles H. Featherstone