> As soon as the waters have an owner, the owner has an incentive to protect them
I am curious. How do you go about deciding ownership on a long river? What rights does "owning" a river give you?
I am curious. How do you go about deciding ownership on a long river? What rights does "owning" a river give you?
I think that there's something wrong with an upstream owner polluting the river and causing damage to people downstream. The situation is analogous to burning poisonous chemicals on land and letting the wind currents carry the chemicals onto neighboring property. In this case the burner would be liable.
The overall point is that pollution can and should be handled as a property-rights matter and that the state need not and should not "regulate" pollution.