Land Ownership as it should be

The Sears Tower of Chicago. Capitalism has already shown its beauty in many aspects of human life. The most spectacular one is architecture. Its buildings have long defined the skylines of the world’s most beautiful cities. This is because people are free to build on their own land, and ideally there are no government enforced restrictions. Image from Wikimedia Commons (author unknown).

Capitalism is a social system based on individual rights. These rights are rights to life, liberty and property. Consistent practice of these rights, taking into account the fact that each and every one individual has them, leads to Capitalism. Capitalism, therefore, is the only moral social system. However, I will not discuss how or why right now. Read the works of Ayn Rand for this. For this discussion in particular, I recommend Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

Since in a Capitalist system no control over a privately owned land is exercised and it is necessary for some record to exist of whom the land belonged to and at what period of time, I have come up with the following system. The historical archives may be held privately by libraries*. This is appropriate, as the government may not be able to, in a Capitalist system, finance maintenance of such archives. Current information on who owns the land now is directly accessible to the government, in form of trade agreements between individuals.

The government’s function is to uphold individual rights. Therefore, they must be able to protect the property of the individual, should the need arise.

To start somewhere, let’s say that a certain patch of land is not privately owned. The government can issue a land deed on this patch of land. They cannot sell the land, however, as land is not a man-made product. The metaphysically given cannot be sold. They can, however, set the terms on which they are willing to issue this land deed. For example, they may request of the potential owner to build a farm there, to build a recreational center, or whatever else they wish. As long as the deed is not issued, this patch of land is not owned. This means that it is open for everyone.

Creating a man-made value, such as growing crops for example, on an unowned land is allowed if the land deed to this land does not exist. If it exists, it is also allowed, but it is a risk to create value there, as the deed could be issued at which point the land becomes privately owned. Should there be no deed for a patch of land, but there is man-made value created on it, the land should then be owned by whoever created this value. Thus, the government cannot issue a deed for the land, if someone already lives there, or has created some other value upon it, except if it is given to the man who created this value.

If the deed has been created, but it wasn’t issued within 6 months from its creation, it must be destroyed. This is due to the fact that the government may set unrealistic terms under which they will issue the deed. Also, if the deed was issued and within the time predicted by government’s terms no value was created on the land, the deed must be revoked by the government and issued to another owner. The previous owner can then be penalized according to the terms which were set at the time when the deed was issued to him. The government can, but doesn’t have to, also issue deeds without obligating the future owner to create value there.

A land with the potential – what do you want to do with it? Use it for farming purposes? Build a road; a home; an airport; a skyscraper? Under Laissez-Faire Capitalism, all of these – and much more – are your options. Image from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Any individual may seek from the government to be given the deed for a certain patch of unowned land where no value has been created by others. In such case he may already have created value on this land, or plans to, which is why he sets the terms of what the land will be used for.

Only one land deed can exist for a certain patch of land. Should forgery of the deed occur, historical archives should be consulted, as well as the government records of when a land deed was created and first issued.

Once the land is privately owned, it is someone’s property. It means that, unless there were prior arrangements with the government, the owner may sell it or utilize it in some way. The owner of the land may, without intrusion of the government, build anything he wants within the boundaries of his patch of land. Government regulation of “private” property under Capitalism is a no-no, for it undermines the principles on which Capitalism rests, and these principles are individual rights.

Another thing which is possible is that one person owns two adjacent patches of land. In this case he may treat them as one single patch, and freely build a single structure that spans throughout both of them.

Selling the deed, and thus the land, should always be done with a contract. The contract must state who sells the land and to whom it is sold. Every contract in a Capitalist system is protected by the government. Should issues arise between the two parties, they will then be settled in court. Another thing that the contract must state is what is being sold. Certain value may have been created on the land, so the contract will state whether this value too will be sold and which part of it. A copy of the contract should be sent to the government, which will later pass it on into the historical archives.

What is important to note here is that the government under Capitalism isn’t a nuisance you have to pay to get rid of, thus in effect destroying value, but instead is the perpetrator of the creation of value. They have no power to damage any one individual in any way. Their job is protection, and initially, the distribution of unowned land – but only to the individuals who are willing to create value there. The government will not force you to gather consents, and you do not have to seek permits to build. Building irresponsibly under Capitalism is dealt with in another fashion, not through regulation.

* So it was conceived at the time of writing. Not really the happiest solution, as there may be no privately owned libraries which would want to hold such archives. Better is that such archives are held by the government.

Land Ownership as it is

Croatian government tells its citizens who wish to build on their own land how many stories they may build, how large a building has to be, and many other details concerning the design of the building itself. These requirements drastically increase the cost of construction and maintenance, so it wouldn’t surprise me if people started living in shacks such as this in order to cut costs. Image from this site.

One of the most horrible things that could happen to you in Croatia is that you buy land from someone and then it turns out not to be his. This, however, need not happen through intentional fraud, but because the local government office doesn’t have the papers describing the history of who owned the land some hundred years ago, to whom it was passed on or sold, and who owns it now. In other words, government has made criminals of other people, and if you want to keep their paperwork up-to-date, be prepared to spend more cash. Very often, doing their paperwork costs you more than the land you bought.

Another atrocity you must endure when owning land in Croatia is that all you can do there legally is mow the grass. If you want to build something there, you must be prepared to spend additional $10000 at least. Moreover, you will run into lazy bureaucrats who won’t move a finger to do anything unless they see more cash (read: unless they are bribed). However, getting them off your back is least of your worries; that is if you carry a suitcase filled with cash. What you then need are consents from various companies, like Gas Company, Phone Company, power and water distributing companies. Apparently you need these because it would be most unfortunate for you if one of these refused to give you their services once you’ve built your home. It indeed would be most unfortunate, but who in the world builds a home or any kind of bigger building without making the necessary preparations by himself? The thing I want to point out here is that you are committing a crime if you start building before you have these papers, and you will be fined as the local government office sees fit. Most likely, they’ll tear down whatever you built.

The most ridiculous thing you need to do before you start building, however, is gathering consents of your neighbors. Yes, you must go to their houses, knock on their doors and ask them “Could you please allow me to build a house next to you, on my own land?”

Trying to build a home in Croatia feels like throwing your money away, as you waste most of it moving the bureaucrats out of your way. Image from this site.

Interestingly, you can collect all of these consents only after your house has been designed by an architect, so if you don’t get them, you’ve wasted your money on an architect. You could try buying land someplace else and use the same project, but if you’re an architect, or if you have at least read The Fountainhead, you will know that this is impossible without making some changes to the design or spatial plan, or both, in which case you will need to spend additional money on an architect.

Even when you’ve collected all these papers, the story with government regulation isn’t over. Law in my country dictates that you must leave 4 meters of space from the bounds of your land, 5 if building next to the road. Furthermore, you can’t build skyscrapers. Well, you can technically, but a skyscraper in our country is a 20 story building, which is utter nonsense. If you want to build something else afterwards on the same patch of land, you must go through the entire process of getting a permit all over again.

What makes things worst of all is that bureaucrats who work in government offices are often corrupted, lazy, and one of the following is true: either they don’t know their job, or they intentionally send you for the necessary documents one by one. They will never tell you what the entire process of getting a permit looks like, or what it should look like when in accordance with law, but instead they give you bits and pieces and see if you can put them together. They are a nuisance and they cost you money, as it is the taxpayers who earn them salaries, not their clients.

In other words, building something in Croatia is a horror story you don’t want to find yourself in the middle of. My advice is for you to stay away. Companies have already gone bankrupt because of negligence of bureaucrats working in local government offices, and honestly, the only way you can currently achieve some end is by bribing them.