Running Out of Room: Overpopulation and Property Rights

From: AL
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2017 9:27 AM
To: Walter Block
Subject: New year’s libertarian conundrum
Dear Walter,
Happy New Year! Hope 2017 will be a successful year for you and for liberty!
As a way to celebrate the new year, I was wondering if I could ask you a question about libertarianism. Suppose every inch of land (and water, etc.) in the physically reachable range of the universe has been homesteaded and owned by some people. There is a strange person, X, that everyone else hates. All land owners publicly announce that they will not allow X to enter their property. In other words, there is no physical place where X can stay without violating the NAP (and X is aware of this desperate fact). Does libertarian theory offer any prescription as to what X should do in such a situation, or any solution to this problem? Thanks a lot! AL

Dear AL: Thanks again for another very, very tough question. I answer as follows. Right now, happily for the human race, land is sub-marginal, but people are not. That is, there is some land that is not now used, but could be, if there were more of us, and we needed to do so. But, suppose, just suppose, that the earth’s population was a million quadrillion (assuming today’s technology, productivity, no trade with Marians or Venusians, etc.). Then, things would be reversed. Human beings would be sub-marginal, but land would no longer be. By this I mean that we would simply have too many people for all of them to survive, and every square (cubic) inch of territory would be utilized. Then, not only would your Mr. X be in trouble, but so would many trillions of other people. Your challenge makes libertarianism look cruel and heartless. But, if every square (cubic) inch of property was already taken up, then the brutality stems not from libertarianism and private property rights, but from overpopulation.
I think that long before we approached any such population size, assuming governments don’t blow us all up in the meantime, that members of our species would be occupying other planets, even in other solar systems. There’s lots of arable real estate out there. My most recent book is a libertarian analysis of the space race, due out in a few months, I expect.

I’ve written a bit about this general issue, although I have never before addressed this particular challenge, for which I thank you:

February 19, 2014. Terry Bain [mailto:[email protected]] Topic: non- malthusian economic policy. A segment of 20 minutes that looks into the balance of free speech in the liberty movement. We are an internet podcast, with almost a third of a million “hits,”
Terry Bain, 540/305-4688. Co host: Melinda Pillsbury-Foster subsistence; http://occupyamericasocialnetwork.com/content/episode-28-occupy-growth

Block, Walter, Jerry Dauterive and John Levendis. 2007. “Globalization and the Concept of Subsistence Wages.” Journal of Income Distribution. Vol. 16, No. 1, March; pp. 74-88; http://direitasja.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/labor-economics-from-a-free-market-perspective-walter-block.pdf

Coffey, Daniel and Walter E. Block. 1999. “Postponing Armageddon: Why Population Growth Isn’t Out of Control,” Humanomics. Vol. 15, No 4, pp. 66-79

English, Patrick and Walter E. Block. 1997. “Overpopulation or Lack of Economic Freedom: Which is the Real Cause of Poverty?” Fundamentals of Prosperity, Essay #2, February, Center for World Capitalism of the James Madison Institute, pp. 1-11.

Block, Walter E. 1989. “Population Growth: Is it a problem?” Resolving Global Problems into the 21st century: How Can Science Help Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference of Canadian Pugwash, Peter S. Ross, Sheila Riordon and Susan MacArtney, eds., Ottawa: CSP Publications, pp. 30-61.

Block, Walter E. 9/28/84. “A study in paranoia, overpopulation and the food crisis Part I,” Grainews, p.76.

Block, Walter E. 10/15/84. “Overpopulation and the food crisis Part II,” Grainews, p.50-51.

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