Property Rights Are What Let People Care For The Long Term

Secure ownership gives people a reason to invest, conserve, and build for the future

Reporting brought to you by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.

People Take Care Of What Is Theirs And Neglect What Belongs To No One In Particular

Property rights are often discussed in terms of fairness or economic efficiency, but they have another important dimension: their effect on how people relate to the future. Secure ownership gives people a reason to care for the long term, to invest, conserve, and build for the future, because they will reap the benefits of their care. People take care of what is theirs and tend to neglect what belongs to no one in particular. Property rights are what let people care for the long term, providing the security of ownership that makes long-term investment and conservation rational.

The Incentive Of Ownership

Ownership provides an incentive to care for the long term. When people own something securely, they will benefit from its long-term value, from the investments they make in it, from the care they take of it. This gives them a reason to invest, to conserve, to build for the future, for they will reap the benefits. The secure owner, knowing they will benefit from the long-term value of their property, has an incentive to care for it over time, to make the investments and take the care that enhance its long-term value. Ownership thus aligns the owner’s interest with the long-term care of their property.

Without secure ownership, this incentive is weakened or absent. If people do not securely own something, if they cannot be sure they will benefit from its long-term value, they have less reason to invest in it, to conserve it, to care for it over time. Why invest in the long-term value of something you may not own in the future, may not benefit from, may lose? The absence of secure ownership weakens the incentive for long-term care, for investment and conservation, leaving people with little reason to build for a future they may not share in. Secure ownership provides the incentive that its absence removes.

The Neglect Of The Unowned

What belongs to no one in particular tends to be neglected. When no one owns something securely, no one has the incentive to care for its long-term value, to invest in it, to conserve it. Each person may use it for their immediate benefit without caring for its long-term condition, for no one benefits particularly from its long-term care. The result is often neglect, overuse, and degradation, as the unowned resource is used without being cared for, depleted without being conserved. The neglect of the unowned reflects the absence of the incentive that ownership provides, the lack of anyone with a reason to care for the long term.

This neglect of the unowned can be observed in various contexts where resources lack secure ownership. The resource that belongs to no one in particular is cared for by no one in particular, used for immediate benefit without regard to its long-term condition. The contrast with owned resources, cared for by their owners who benefit from their long-term value, is instructive. Owned resources tend to be cared for, conserved, invested in; unowned resources tend to be neglected, overused, degraded. The difference reflects the incentive that ownership provides and its absence removes.

Property And Conservation

The connection between property rights and long-term care has important implications for conservation. Secure ownership can provide an incentive for conservation, for the owner who benefits from the long-term value of a resource has a reason to conserve it, to maintain its value over time. This suggests that property rights can be a tool for conservation, aligning the interest of owners with the long-term care of resources. Where resources are securely owned, owners have an incentive to conserve them; where they are unowned, the incentive for conservation is weakened, and neglect and degradation are more likely.

This connection is sometimes overlooked in discussions of conservation, which may treat property and ownership as obstacles to conservation rather than as tools for it. But secure ownership, by giving owners a reason to care for the long-term value of their resources, can support conservation, aligning private interest with the long-term care of resources. The recognition of this connection, between property rights and the incentive for long-term care, suggests that property rights can be part of the solution to conservation, providing the incentive for the long-term care that conservation requires.

The Foundation Of Stewardship

Property rights are what let people care for the long term, providing the security of ownership that makes long-term investment and conservation rational. People take care of what is theirs, benefiting from its long-term value, and tend to neglect what belongs to no one in particular, lacking the incentive to care for it. The incentive of ownership, the alignment of the owner’s interest with the long-term care of their property, is a foundation of stewardship, of the care for the long term that secure ownership enables.

This understanding of property rights, as the foundation of long-term care, complements their other dimensions of fairness and efficiency. Secure ownership not only is fair and efficient but enables stewardship, the care for the long term that the security of ownership makes rational. The recognition of this dimension, of property rights as what let people care for the long term, deepens the appreciation of their value, revealing them as a foundation not only of prosperity but of stewardship, of the long-term care and conservation that secure ownership enables. Property rights, in giving people a reason to care for the future, are a foundation of the stewardship on which long-term flourishing depends. See the Environmental Protection Agency for relevant context, and the National Park Service for further background.

Read more perspectives at McSweeneys.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/