Walter Block on Negative Homesteading

The following exchange took place between Dr. Walter Block and Gor Mkrtchian.

Hi Dr. Block,

You recently came to a Yale Political Union debate and spoke about open borders.  I enjoyed that very much and wanted to thank you for coming.  Hopefully the campus will get to see more libertarians in the future. I was the student who gave the last student-speech in favor of open borders that you said you liked.  We met briefly in person.  

I plan on applying to Mises University 2016 so hopefully we can meet again there.

I was thinking about evictionism and had some thoughts I wanted to share with you.  When someone voluntarily engages in sexual acts, could that be considered an implicit agreement that in the event of pregnancy the mother will take care of the child?

Regarding negative homesteading, when someone is involuntarily impregnated, could that be viewed as negative homesteading misery?  You have given the example of negative homesteading a lightning strike and not being allowed to deflect it if it will hit someone else.  Can pregnancy be seen this way?  The mother would be negative homesteading the burden and because she cannot relieve herself of it without harming an innocent, she is obliged to suffer the burden.  

Thank you,
Gor Mkrtchian

P.S. I really liked your appearance on the Tom Woods Show discussing "Water Capitalism"

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Dear Gor:

Thanks for your kind words. What are your plans after graduating from Yale? Yes, it’ll be great to see you at the MU.

Nice try on both objections. I think I answer that implicit act objection in my pubs on evictionism, see below.

As for negative homesteading, if lightening hits you, you may not pawn it off onto another innocent person. But, if you’re raped, and you evict, I fail to see how you are transferring the misery to any innocent person.

For libertarian publications on evictionism, see Block, 1977, 1978, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2010A, 2011A, 2012, 2013A, 2014A, 2014B; Block and Whitehead, 2005; Dyke and Block, 2011. For critiques of these by libertarian, see, Akers, 2012A, 2012B, Davies, 2012; Parr, 2011; Presley and Cooke, 1979; Shaffer, 2012; Wisniewski, 2010A, 2010B, 2011, 2013.  For rejoinders to these critiques see Block, 2010B, 2010C, 2011B, 2011C, 2011D, 2013B, 2014C, 2014D, 2015

Akers, Becky. 2012A. “Not My Definition — or Webster's Either — of 'Trespassing'” September 6; http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/120226.html

Akers, Becky. 2012B. “What if the 'Fetus' Could Shoot Back?” September 12; http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/120728.html

Block, Walter E. 1977. “Toward a Libertarian Theory of Abortion.” The Libertarian Forum. Vol. 10, No. 9, September, pp. 6-8;http://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1977/1977_09.pdf

Block, Walter E. 1978. “Abortion, Woman and Fetus: Rights in Conflict?”Reason, Vol. 9, No. 12, April, pp. 18-25.

Block, Walter E. 2001. “Stem Cell Research: The Libertarian Compromise.”September 3; http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block5.html

Block, Walter E. 2004. “Libertarianism, Positive Obligations and Property Abandonment: Children’s Rights,” International Journal of Social Economics; Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 275-286; http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do?containerType=Issue&containerId=18709;http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/block-children.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2008. “Homesteading, ad coelum, owning views and forestalling.” The Social Sciences. Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 96-103;http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1890872

Block, Walter E. 2010A. “A libertarian perspective on the stem cell debate: compromising the uncompromisible,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.  Vol. 35: 429-448;

http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/jhq033?
ijkey=oczT7ytzmoAD1cz&keytype=ref; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jhq033?ijkey=oczT7ytzmoAD1cz&keytype=ref ; http://wipimd.com/?&sttflpg=78eaf87fd81ebaaa7a245cca600b15bba8497c2cfbf1284c08a0260ba068d4ad&cmpgp0811Ueh016=ICD20811TEH0PkRLpL1IF; http://wipimd.com/?&sttflpg=4b842f7f4697bce38422e0bfe03e6ccad53070377a9303d5#JAL1

Block, Walter E. 2010B. “Objections to the Libertarian Stem Cell Compromise,”Libertarian Papers 2, 34; http://libertarianpapers.org/2010/34-block-objections-to-the-libertarian-stem-cell-compromise/

Block, Walter E. 2010C. “Rejoinder to Wisniewski on Abortion.” Libertarian Papers; Vol. 32, No. 2; http://libertarianpapers.org/2010/32-block-rejoinder-to-wisniewski-on-abortion/; http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2010/lp-2-32.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2011A. “Terri Schiavo: A Libertarian Analysis” Journal of Libertarian Studies; Vol. 22, pp. 527–536; http://mises.org/journals/jls/22_1/22_1_26.pdf; http://libertycrier.com/walter-block-terri-schiavo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LibertyCrier+%28Liberty+Crier%29

Block, Walter E. 2011B. “Response to Wisniewski on Abortion, Round Two.”Libertarian Papers; Vol. 3, Article No. 4; http://libertarianpapers.org/2011/4-block-response-to-wisniewski-on-abortion-round-two/

Block, Walter E. 2011C. “Response to Wisniewski on Abortion, Round Three.”Libertarian Papers, Vol. 3, Art. 37; http://libertarianpapers.org/2011/37-block-response-to-wisniewski-on-abortion/

Block, Walter E. 2011D. “Evictionism is libertarian; departurism is not: critical comment on Parr.” Vol. 3, Article 36, Libertarian Papers;

http://libertarianpapers.org/2011/36-evictionism-is-libertarian-departurism-is-not-critical-comment-on-parr/

Block, Walter E. 2012. “A Not So Funny Thing Happened to Me in Tampa.”August 30; http://lewrockwell.com/block/block208.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNTAmwUHcLM

http://conza.tumblr.com/tagged/evictionism

http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/jhq033?
ijkey=oczT7ytzmoAD1cz&keytype=ref; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jhq033?ijkey=oczT7ytzmoAD1cz&keytype=ref

Block, Walter E. 2013A. “Toward a libertarian theory of evictionism,” Journal of Family and Economic Issues. June; http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10834-013-9361-4

Block, Walter E. 2013B. “Rejoinder to Parr on Evictionism and Departurism”Journal of Peace, Prosperity & Freedom, Vol. 2, pp. 125-138;http://jppfaustralia.weebly.com/current-issue.html; http://jppfaustralia.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/5/5/14558572/journalpeaceprosperityfreedom_single.pdf

Block, Walter E.  2014A. “Should abortion be criminalized? Rejoinder to Akers, Davies and Shaffer on Abortion” Management Education Science Technology (MEST) Journal. Vol. 2, No. 1, January, pp. 33-44; http://fbim.meste.org/FBIM_1_2014/Sadrzaj_eng.html; http://fbim.meste.org/FBIM_1_2014/_04.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2014B. “Evictionism and Libertarianism.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Volume 35, Issue 2, pp 290-294; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/04/27/jmp.jhu012.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=3n1zc8zcBRnT586;

http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jhu012?ijkey=3n1zc8zcBRnT586&keytype=ref

Block, Walter E.  2014C. “Should abortion be criminalized? Rejoinder to Akers, Davies and Shaffer on Abortion” Management Education Science Technology (MEST) Journal. Vol. 2, No. 1, January, pp. 33-44; http://fbim.meste.org/FBIM_1_2014/Sadrzaj_eng.html; http://fbim.meste.org/FBIM_1_2014/_04.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2014D. “Response to Wisniewski on Abortion, Round Four.”Management Education Science Technology Journal (MEST);http://mest.meste.org/MEST_Najava/V_Block.pdf;

http://www.mest.meste.org/MEST_2_2014/K1_eng.html;

http://www.fbim.meste.org/FBIM_2_2014/Sadrzaj_eng.html

Block, Walter E. 2015. “Question and response on rape and evictionism theory.” June 23;

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/question-and-response-on-rape-and-evictionism-theory/

Block, Walter E. and Roy Whitehead. 2005. “Compromising the Uncompromisable: A Private Property Rights Approach to Resolving the Abortion Controversy,” Appalachian Law Review, 4 (2) 1-45;http://www.walterblock.com/publications/block-whitehead_abortion-2005.pdf;http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/block-whitehead_abortion-2005.pdf; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228125532_Compromising_the_Uncompromisable_A_Private_Property_Rights_Approach_to_Resolving_the_Abortion_Controversy?ev=prf_pub

Davies, Jim. 2012. “Abortion.” September 24;

http://strike-the-root.com/abortion

Dyke, Jeremiah and Walter E. Block. 2011. “Explorations in Property Rights: Conjoined Twins.” Libertarian Papers, Vol. 3, Art. 38;http://libertarianpapers.org/2011/38-dyke-block-conjoined-twins/

Parr, Sean. 2011. “Departurism and the Libertarian Axiom of Gentleness.”Libertarian Papers, Vol. 3, No. 34, http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2011/lp-3-34.doc

Presley, Sharon and Robert Cooke (aka Morgan Edwards). 1979. “The right to abortion: a libertarian defense.” Association of libertarian feminists discussion paper.

http://www.alf.org/abortion.php

Shaffer, Butler. 2012. “Of Children and Fetuses” September 17;

http://lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer259.html

Wisniewski, Jakub Bozydar. 2010A. “A Critique of Block on Abortion and Child Abandonment.” Libertarian Papers Vol. 2, No. 16; http://libertarianpapers.org/2010/16-wisniewski-block-on-abortion/

Wisniewski, Jakub Bozydar. 2010B. “Rejoinder to Block’s Defense of Evictionism.” Libertarian Papers. Vol. 2, Art No. 27; http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2010/lp-2-37.pdf

Wisniewski, Jakub Bozydar. 2011. “Response to Block on Abortion, Round Three.”

http://libertarianpapers.org/2011/6-winiewski-response-to-block-on-abortion-round-three/; http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2011/lp-3-6.pdf

Wisniewski, Jakub Bozydar. 2013. “Abortion, Libertarianism and Evictionism: A Last Word.” Libertarian Papers, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 153-162;http://libertarianpapers.org/2013/6-wisniewski-abortion-libertarianism-and-evictionism/

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.

Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics

Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business                   

Loyola University New Orleans