EcoLibertarianism combines the Georgist/geoclassical economic insights of geolibertarianism with the broader ecological and decentralist concerns of green libertarianism. EcoLibertarianism primarily differs from classical (or "royal") libertarianism in how property relates to the commons.

In EcoLibertarianism, interference with general access to the commons is defined as aggression and requires compensation to (and/or policing by) the community interfered with. Interference can include pollution, congestion, consumption, or (generally) any use that significantly diminishes the ability of the commons to sustainably support its reasonable use by the community.

In particular, EcoLibertarianism denies that locations can be fully owned in the same way that you can acquire material property by rearranging unowned matter. Eclusive possessors of locations must therefore compensate the excluded community by returning the location's geo-rent to them.

Geo-rent is the excess production obtained by using a site in its most productive use, compared to the production obtained by applying equivalent inputs of labor and capital at the most productive site where the application doesn't require (additional) payments for use of the site.

Thus when sites are freely available that are equivalently productive (modulo improvements and other inputs) compared to yours, then you owe zero geo-rent to the neighbors you exclude from your land.

The basic idea is that what you do or make is fully yours, but what you take or spoil is not. In practice, EcoLibertarianism differs from "royal" libertarianism in that it advocates

  • severance fees for the extraction of natural resources;
  • policing negative externalities through green pricing (e.g. Pigovian taxes); and
  • financing of community services (e.g. roads, pipes, wires) through congestion fees and tapping the increased ground rent of the benefiting land.

A more complete explanation of EcoLibertarianism is in the draft Free Earth Manifesto. It is a statement of principles about how individual rights relate to ecology, geography, and community. These statements are intended to win assent from green libertarians, libertarian-leaning greens, geolibertarians, and ecologically-minded economists. The meaning of "community" in it intentionally does not exclude completely voluntary communities, so as to not rule out assent from geoanarchists.

GeoLibertarianism

GeoLibertarian Economics

Land Value Taxation

Green Tax Shift

Georgism

Activism

Controversies

  • Land As A Special Factor Of Production
  • Georgism Assumes A Labor Theory of Value?
  • How Did The Community Come To Own The Commons?
  • Magnitude of Geo-Rent
  • Geo-Rent Sharing
    • Community Scope
    • Migration
    • Cash Citizens' Dividend?
  • Assessing Land Value
page revision: 33, last edited: 11 Nov 2012 04:23
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