WEBVTT NOTE 17. Homesteading for Fun and Survival 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Homesteading for Fun and Survival, co-authored with Manuel Lora 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Someone noted a strange aspect of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Before being broken, the students had made an exceptionally organized life for themselves, 4 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.000 a cell of ordered liberty on so-called public property in a totalitarian society. 5 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:32.240 For a brief time, they lived and experienced the possibility of self-organized social order, 6 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:36.080 but failed to see the implications. 7 00:00:36.080 --> 00:00:40.480 So it is whenever people are confronted with the need to make sense of government-owned 8 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:43.820 space, public property. 9 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:48.620 Without formal law or title, they assume a kind of ownership of the space through a form 10 00:00:48.620 --> 00:00:51.080 of homesteading. 11 00:00:51.080 --> 00:00:57.020 Think of annual parades, gatherings before sports or music events, or any other place 12 00:00:57.020 --> 00:01:00.760 where the property is common in name only. 13 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:05.100 The same groups somehow manage to meet year after year in the same spot and hold it for 14 00:01:05.100 --> 00:01:07.260 themselves. 15 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:13.740 In practice, the space, limited by the uses to which its temporary owners put it, is treated 16 00:01:13.740 --> 00:01:18.180 as if it were owned by the individuals who use it. 17 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:20.340 Why is this? 18 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:24.920 What does this imply for economics and politics? 19 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:30.500 In the Lockean libertarian tradition, homesteading is a means to establish an initial claim to 20 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:32.780 a scarce resource. 21 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:37.380 It consists of the exercise of purposeful action over nature. 22 00:01:37.380 --> 00:01:43.980 The resource is usually land, but it can extend to bodies of water and also animals. 23 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:47.740 One of the rules of homesteading is that you have to mix your labour with the resource 24 00:01:47.740 --> 00:01:54.660 This is perfectly reasonable and intuitively correct. 25 00:01:54.660 --> 00:01:59.220 Christopher Columbus can't show up in North America and declare that he owns it all, any 26 00:01:59.220 --> 00:02:03.620 more than the first settler in space can claim to own the galaxy. 27 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:08.260 The resource must be put to specific use by the claimant. 28 00:02:08.260 --> 00:02:14.300 Today we rarely see real homesteading in action, because much of the land we see already has 29 00:02:14.300 --> 00:02:30.060 Let us consider a common example – a day at the beach. 30 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:35.020 When people head to the beach, they bring chairs, set up umbrellas and roll out towels. 31 00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:39.340 Once their things are in order, they have effectively homesteaded that area of the beach 32 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:41.540 for as long as they stay. 33 00:02:41.540 --> 00:02:47.560 The area under their tutelage extends beyond the perimeter of their initial space. 34 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:53.020 Given cultural and density constraints, groups do not usually set up their belongings right 35 00:02:53.020 --> 00:02:54.860 next to one another. 36 00:02:54.860 --> 00:03:00.700 Rather, some breathing space is left for personal comfort and to allow others to walk between 37 00:03:00.700 --> 00:03:01.980 groups. 38 00:03:01.980 --> 00:03:06.460 So, how much space is legitimate? 39 00:03:06.460 --> 00:03:09.880 Imagine you are standing at the checkout lane at the grocery store and the person in front 40 00:03:09.880 --> 00:03:11.880 One of you turns around and says, 41 00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:15.880 By the way, I am holding ten spaces behind me. 42 00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:17.880 The response would be, 43 00:03:17.880 --> 00:03:19.880 The heck you do? 44 00:03:19.880 --> 00:03:23.880 How about if you are searching for a seat at a theater and are told by one person 45 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:26.880 that he is holding an entire row for some friends who are late? 46 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:29.880 Or what if some guy wants to prevent people from parking in a lot 47 00:03:29.880 --> 00:03:34.880 because he says he's using every space when there are no cars there? 48 00:03:34.880 --> 00:03:40.520 In each case, we instinctively recognize the absurdity of those claims. 49 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:45.800 Homesteading stands on solid ground, yet its practical application can often be a gray 50 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:47.680 area. 51 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:51.040 The Case of Mardi Gras 52 00:03:51.040 --> 00:03:55.880 The last weekend of Mardi Gras is well known for the influx of tourists. 53 00:03:55.880 --> 00:04:00.680 Some might travel there to drink heavily, others to observe or participate in the debauchery, 54 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:04.760 and others to enjoy the parades and admire the floats. 55 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:12.080 Whatever their reason for traveling to the Big Easy, one thing is certain, it is crowded. 56 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:18.360 And since the parades roll down major avenues, the median, called neutral ground by the locals, 57 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:24.520 gets packed with revelers, and the problem of land scarcity is exacerbated. 58 00:04:24.520 --> 00:04:30.560 There are tens of thousands of people competing for a relatively small amount of space. 59 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:35.900 To make things worse, many Mardi Gras enthusiasts, particularly the residents, often camp early 60 00:04:35.900 --> 00:04:42.240 and set aside space to watch the parades later, homesteading their spot. 61 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:46.040 Mardi Gras tradition has established that anyone who wants to reserve a space on a parade 62 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:51.600 route must do so by setting down a useful and accepted carnival good. 63 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:56.400 Generally people use tarps, chairs, ladders, grills or coolers. 64 00:04:56.400 --> 00:05:02.240 Let's return to the hypothetical, avaricious homesteader who wishes to claim large spaces 65 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:04.800 for himself. 66 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:09.000 Suppose that he rolls out a piece of tarp that is 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. 67 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.500 Further, assume that he is alone. 68 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:17.320 Just as the farmer simply cannot claim he owns land that he himself has not used, our 69 00:05:17.320 --> 00:05:23.800 greedy parade watcher does not have a proper claim to the entire area under the large tarp. 70 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:26.360 What happens with bogus claims? 71 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:32.160 The groups of people would, and do indeed, see through the farce and call him on it. 72 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:35.280 They could very well order him to release most of the space he has falsely claimed as 73 00:05:35.280 --> 00:05:37.460 his own. 74 00:05:37.460 --> 00:05:40.680 Other enforcement techniques could go further. 75 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:46.360 Competing groups could disregard the egregious exaggeration and simply use the wasted space. 76 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:52.960 It could very well come to the use of force, but this would be rare, unnecessary and counterproductive. 77 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:58.800 A rogue homesteader would have to continually battle with everyone else. 78 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:03.520 These norms did not occur due to legislation or a special mandate. 79 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:07.760 Over the years, people recognized the legitimacy of the first user, the homesteader. 80 00:06:07.760 --> 00:06:13.160 Today, the preoccupation is no longer about whether one can homestead a piece of land 81 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:14.860 to watch parades. 82 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:20.940 The worry is about getting there early, to be the first one, and enjoy the show. 83 00:06:20.940 --> 00:06:24.060 The Case of Tailgating 84 00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:28.460 Tailgating is the practice of gathering together with friends before a sports event to eat, 85 00:06:28.460 --> 00:06:33.180 drink and talk until the game begins and sometimes to watch the game on television if people 86 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:38.640 find themselves too inebriated to walk to the sports event. 87 00:06:38.640 --> 00:06:43.020 They sometimes arrive a day in advance, driving their travel trailers and preparing for the 88 00:06:43.020 --> 00:06:45.340 long haul. 89 00:06:45.340 --> 00:06:50.180 Far from being a mere picnic, this is a huge institution with a tradition that dates far 90 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:58.300 Vast sums are spent on food, special clothing, decorations, electronic contraptions, transportation, 91 00:06:58.300 --> 00:07:05.000 special grills, and refrigeration equipment, all in the interest of tailgating. 92 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.700 The tailgaters gather at spots public and private. 93 00:07:08.700 --> 00:07:11.300 The private interests sell space to them for profit. 94 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:14.940 The public authorities permit them to homestead the space because they are pressured to do 95 00:07:14.940 --> 00:07:17.720 so by public opinion. 96 00:07:17.720 --> 00:07:21.400 But it is far from being a free-for-all. 97 00:07:21.400 --> 00:07:25.560 Tailgating groups constitute private clubs and they congregate in the same space week 98 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:31.200 after week in the football season and year after year, even for decades. 99 00:07:31.200 --> 00:07:37.080 The groups manage themselves as clubs with rules letting people in or out of the group. 100 00:07:37.080 --> 00:07:42.160 Some are run like dictatorships and others like democracy, but in each case, the members 101 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.860 can send to the management structure. 102 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:50.580 The space they occupy is as large as necessary for the group, which usually consists of between 103 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:53.180 five and thirty people. 104 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:57.740 Each group claims a space by putting up a tent, parking a trailer or setting up a large 105 00:07:57.740 --> 00:08:00.580 screen television with chairs in front. 106 00:08:00.580 --> 00:08:04.700 A claimant who insisted on possessing more than is necessary is quickly set straight 107 00:08:04.700 --> 00:08:09.140 by other would-be claimants of this scarce space. 108 00:08:09.140 --> 00:08:12.020 There are enforcement mechanisms to keep people out. 109 00:08:12.020 --> 00:08:18.900 Interlopers are scolded, shunned, and sometimes blasted with exhaust fumes and horn blasts. 110 00:08:18.900 --> 00:08:23.380 In the culture of tailgating, people have a surprisingly certain sense of ownership, 111 00:08:23.380 --> 00:08:28.100 and even others are willing to assist in the enforcement of order, lest their own homesteading 112 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:31.340 assumptions come to be challenged. 113 00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:36.020 Year after year, it comes to be known that certain allocations belong to certain tailgating 114 00:08:36.020 --> 00:08:37.020 groups. 115 00:08:37.020 --> 00:08:43.100 Here is the Jones Group, there is the Smith Group, there is the Jefferson Group. 116 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:47.800 Surprisingly, these homesteading rights are even transferable. 117 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:51.780 If one group falls apart or fails to come together for one year, another would-be claimant 118 00:08:51.780 --> 00:08:56.020 is notified and given permission to use the space. 119 00:08:56.020 --> 00:09:01.260 This pattern of ownership repeats itself over many acres, and even miles, of property, with 120 00:09:01.260 --> 00:09:06.800 lots of various sizes and shapes honeycombing all available space. 121 00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:13.940 To watch a town be transformed in a matter of hours from unoccupied to completely occupied 122 00:09:13.940 --> 00:09:19.720 in an orderly fashion without any titles to property being issued and conflict kept to 123 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:25.980 a minimum is a thing of enormous beauty, a testament to the capacity of people to organize 124 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:31.640 themselves in the absence of a central planner, formalized rules, formal title, or even the 125 00:09:31.640 --> 00:09:36.520 opportunity to trade their property at a profit. 126 00:09:36.520 --> 00:09:42.140 So the Lockean rule about mixing one's labor should conjure up no great controversy. 127 00:09:42.140 --> 00:09:45.820 It is a principle that is practiced on a regular basis. 128 00:09:45.820 --> 00:09:50.380 When public property is truly in demand, it is effectively privatized by the actions of 129 00:09:50.380 --> 00:09:57.100 individuals who understand that ownership precedes order. 130 00:09:57.100 --> 00:10:05.560 And their claims, however temporary or inter-temporarily elaborate, are reasonable and enforced by 131 00:10:05.560 --> 00:10:12.320 Widely accepted norms, what Rothbard called the relevant technological unit, the size of 132 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:16.860 which depends on the type of good or resource in question. 133 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:23.800 The reality of informal homesteading also illustrates that the concept of ownership is not something 134 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:27.280 that must be imposed by the state or even law. 135 00:10:27.280 --> 00:10:34.120 It is built into the very fabric of human action in a world of scarce resources, and 136 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:39.320 and it requires massive force to undo. 137 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:45.360 Conjure up visions of equality and collective sharing if you must, but in the real world, 138 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:51.440 property and ownership are part of the way we think, act and get along in the world.