The Lone Libertarian

Every once in a while I stumble across a situation or an account of a situation where I hearken back to the roots of the libertarian philosophy. These roots are firmly planted in the concept of property ownership. A basic principle is that you may do whatever you will with your property until it impacts another individual’s property or rights. I’ll come back to this concept after this brief story from Utah.

Here’s a story of a 70 year old woman, Betty Perry, who lives in Orem, Utah. Betty claims she has never been in trouble with the law, until last week, when the police came knocking.

Betty wasn’t pedaling drugs, molesting neighborhood kids, killing local residents, or stealing horses. You see, Betty was doing something MUCH WORSE. Betty had not been watering her yard, an Orem city ordinance. After refusing to give the officer her name, when she realized she was being charged with something, Betty had cuffs slapped on her after “tripping” and cutting her face on her front steps.

She was thrown in a jail cell for an hour, before the powers that be realized what a ridiculous mistake they had made.

The lesson Betty learned?

“Don’t ever say no when the police tell you do to something. You better do what they tell you no matter what, even if you don’t have anybody to help you. You’ve got to do what they tell you or they will hurt you.”

Lovely story, don’t you think?

Back to my line of reasoning I started previously. How can a local government create jailed criminals out of those whom don’t have enough money to water their yard? Do you really own your property/land anymore, or are you just the steward for local governments, paying for upkeep?

I know I will get replies that will relate to property values. That’s all well and good, but your property value is not a right, just the same as the value of your stock portfolio is not a right. It is subject to market forces, inflation, nature, and other things that are difficult, if not impossible to control.

In a nutshell I don’t think I should have to do anything at all to my yard if I don’t want to. However, being neighborly and/or trying to increase or hold my property value would naturally compel me to take action or ask for assistance. I shouldn’t be mandated by men with guns to do anything with property that I supposedly own, as long as I am not violating the rights of others.

Is this land my land really?