Friday, 17 August 2018

Via Radical Capitalist ..


Vague claims about a group of people "benefiting" from injustices that *some* of their ancestors committed hundreds of years ago isn't a sufficient basis for demanding resources be forcefully taken from them and redistributed in the present.
Property norms are established for the purpose of minimizing and peacefully resolving conflicts over scarce physical resources. Restitution for trespass, as a property norm, follows this purpose as well. As such, latecomers who demand resources from present users as restitution must be able to provide specific and concrete evidence on an individual basis of a superior ownership claim to those resources in order for restitution to be rightfully given. The alternative is a world of incessant provocation of frivolous property disputes, in turn creating irreconcilable hostility between individuals as well as between people groups.
Justifying restitution demands on the basis of vague historical claims that are nearly unprovable on an individual basis is a recipe for perpetual and irreconcilable violent conflict, and is therefore antithetical to the purpose for which property norms (and restitution norms by extension) are established in the first place.

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