From: A
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2016 10:42 AM
To: Walter Block
Subject: Re: Pirates

Dear Walter,

What do you think of pirates? Can someone just homestead a piece of water that is now owned by government, or unowned, and then charge ships that try to cross it? Of course most pirates in reality don’t conform to the proper practice because they haven’t put up a sign specifying the rules and fees, etc. but can there be some good, libertarian “pirates”?

Thanks a lot!

A

Dear A: As far as I’m concerned, the world’s leading expert on pirates is Peter Leeson. I’m gonna run this by him for his opinion. Here’s my take on your interesting and important question: Why call the owners of bodies of water “pirates.” This seems a big pejorative to me. Why not call them, merely, “private owners?” Private owners of railroads charge a fee for usage. Private owners of roads, if there were any, would, presumably, do the same. So yes, private owners of oceans would indeed likely charge for their usage (unless they were loss leaders). So, who, likely, would the private owners be? Presumably, thousands if not tens of thousands of people, most likely in the form of a large corporation. Who would own the Mississippi River? In my view, all the people with land abutting this body of water, all those using it for recreation, transportation, as a water source, etc. The same for the oceans.

For further elaboration on this matter, I’ve written a bit about this sort of thing:

Block, Walter E. 2019. “The Chinese Lead Us, However Imperfectly, to Private Oceans.” February 5; https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2019/02/05/the_chinese_lead_us_however_imperfectly_to_private_oceans_103607.html

Block, Walter E. and Peter Lothian Nelson. 2015. Water Capitalism: The Case for Privatizing Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and Aquifers. New York City, N.Y.: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield; https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498518802/Water-Capitalism-The-Case-for-Privatizing-Oceans-Rivers-Lakes-and-Aquifers. https://mises.org/library/case-privatizing-oceans-and-rivers

scathing review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1SMO4B0T1AWM5/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1498518826

Block, Walter E. 2009. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-And-Highways-Factors/dp/1279887303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336605800&sr=1-1; available for free here: http://mises.org/books/roads_web.pdf; http://mises.org/daily/3416; http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/radical_privatization.pdf; audio: http://store.mises.org/Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Audiobook-P11005.aspx; http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Audiobook/B0167IT18K?tag=misesinsti-20; http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=6cbc90577b&e=54244ea97d

http://www.sanfranciscoreviewofbooks.com/2017/09/book-review-privatization-of-roads-and.html

The Best of Walter E. Block