20A004 Rightful Control by Jim Davies, 1/28/2020    

Rightful control is what "ownership" means. You own something if you both control its use, and do so by right. If one of those is missing, you don't own it. Consider the antebellum slaves. Were they owned, by the plantation operator?

For two centuries the masters claimed to be their owners, and in actual practice they certainly controlled the slaves; few managed to escape. But they had no right to do so at all, for by the self-ownership axiom, each slave by right owned him- or herself. Each had been kidnapped, and when sold, the sale was fraudulent. The buyer was purchasing stolen property, and he knew that perfectly well. He controlled the slave in practice, but not at all by right. So no, he did not own them. By right the slaves were self-owners, as we are; but they could not exercise that right in practice. Nor can we.

Similarly, as shown in the ZGBlog Two False Claims, government is never the rightful controller (ie, true owner) of land, or any other asset. The FedGov controls America in practice, but its right to do so derives from a cession by the British in 1783 in the Treaty of Paris; more accurately it was ceded to the former Colonies, which became States that later relinquished control to the Feds.

But the BritGov, in the name of George III, never had rightful control of those Colonies in the first place; his predecessors had merely signed pieces of paper declaring "ownership" and chartering emissaries to go grab what they could. There was no sense in which Their Majesties "worked" the wilderness they were claiming to own, even if it had not been somewhat occupied by native hunters. So, the Treaty of Paris was - like the slave auctions - also a fraud; the Brits were ceding property to which they had no valid title; it was stolen property. So, does government own any part of America? - no, not a single square inch of it.

Consider next you and me; perhaps you own a home, or think you do. Do you? Check the small print in the title deed. Language there says we do not; we take it only by permission of government. Tax must be paid to it, and that's a form of rent. Stop paying it, get evicted.

You worked the land (or you worked at some other occupation whose proceeds you used to purchase the land from a vendor who did) so you certainly have a right to control it; but ultimately you do not control it in practice. You hold it only by the grace and favor of government Masters.

Now, there may be thousands of artefacts inside your home or mine, which we might be said to own; from pencils to PCs, from food to furniture. We bought or were given them (hence, we have a right to them) and nobody else claims or steals them (so we do actually control their use.) However, as above the home itself is not subject to our control; if we were evicted for non-payment of tribute to the Masters, we would lose control over all of them. So I reckon we don't own even those items.

Summary so far: government controls the land but has no right to do so, while real people like us have the right to "our" properties but not the control of them.

Accordingly, today nobody owns anything.

That will be corrected, in the coming zero government society, as one of its most immediate tasks. I visualize that in every locality title companies will spring up, to register the proper ownership (right plus control) of real estate. There will be ample demand for them, so the market will provide - as it always does. Necessarily in that business, competitors will practice a measure of co-operation, to solve the obvious problems of overlap. For example if two people try to register ownership of the same property with two competing title firms, they need quickly to resolve a dispute; and if a four-party meeting cannot do so, an arbitrator will be asked to render judgment.

There will be two main kinds of registrant: (1) those who have had (as above) an obvious right to land and buildings, such as a home in which they live, but who have not enjoyed control because government usurped it; and (2) those who wish to lay a first-time claim to land which, following the disappearance of all government, is not claimed as property by anyone.

The first of those kinds should be rather straighforward, for few disputes or challenges are likely; evidence of sale and occupation will be produced, a fee paid, and a title will be registered. You and I will become true owners of our own homes, for the first time ever.

The second kind will have at least two subdivisions. One will relate to the vast tracts of land presently controlled by government - including, but not limited to, "national parks." The FedGov alone controls 28% of the country in that way, and all of it will be open to claimants who wish to work that land and so validate a claim to become its owner.

The other subdivision, also very large, consists of roads. Towns, States and the Feds together control almost all roads, with no right to do so; so that land too is wilderness, and will be open to claimants wishing to work and own it; but here a different factor applies: all roads to which other properties (homes, factories, offices) have access are subject to a right of ownership by the owners of those abutting properties. Indeed, occupiers of those homes which were built as a group by a developer who had bought all the land on which they and their service roads were placed, paid for those roads as part of the house prices. So those roads are parts 0f the properties to which adjacent landowners have a right (but currently cannot control) as a large number of small parcels of asphalt.

So, title companies should have no problem in registering ownership of those small parcels, on the basis of the many frontages abutting. Then there will remain the need for all those parcels to be glued together again, as it were, so as to form again a useful viable highway.

Any disagreements among the parcel owners will be resolved quickly because they are of no use when separate. Every such owner will need access to a road, so there will always be a strong incentive to form an agreement with the others to sell out to a road operator; and the sale contract will include a clause to secure perpetual right of access.

Once that has taken place and the road is once more a road, it will - for the first time ever - have a true owner, very commonly a company specializing in road operation for profit. He will form agreements with other road owners regarding mutual rights of access, and will charge tolls for usage and administer their collection using scanners at appropriate points of access.

Ownership - rightful control - will thus become a reality in human society very soon after government evaporates, for the first time in 10,000 years. The change will mark the end of an epoch, and the start of one infinitely better.