Sunday, April 12, 2009

Air pollution - the libertarian remedy

The remedy against air pollution is therefore crystal clear, and it has nothing to do with multibillion-dollar palliative government programs at the expense of the taxpayers which do not even meet the real issue. The remedy is simply for the courts to return to their function of defending person and property rights against invasion, and therefore to enjoin anyone from injecting pollutants into the air.
Quote taken from For A New Liberty - The Libertarian Manifesto, Chapter 13. The greens and leftists have NO solutions to the problems of pollution. Libertarians, on the other hand, do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Problem is, cars pollute the air of anyone's property they drive past. Where are my property rights now? It's like someone coming by and throwing garbage in your house. If the air I breathe on my own property can't be free of other people's pollutants, I don't see how I can be said to enjoy any property rights at all.

Geir said...

A good point, well addressed in the chapter I point to, and also here:

http://mises.org/rothbard/lawproperty.pdf

The general point is: Pollution is a "property right", just like agriculture and industry. It needs to be homesteaded, or sold on the free market.

Your point is a good one, but well addressed by Rothbard.

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