Nick Szabo  🔑

Curious, how can anyone claim right to ownership over a parcel of the earth except for having purchased (or taken by force) that parcel from someone before him who in turn did the same? In the end it seems property rights are only threats of violence over your use of that parcel

You have to subscribe to either current day common law and property rights or the right of conquest. Stable societies are built on property rights because it's worth it for people to improve their land and invest with a low time preference. No right to property = high time pref

The stability benefit of property rights goes those with the property at the expense of those who have no current claim and therefore cannot make use of the property to meet their survival needs. Those who have nothing do not care about histoic claim or low time preference.

In the end, if you want to enforce property rights, it needs to be done under the threat of violence which seems to conflict with the NAP.

The NAP is centered squarely on property rights. Bezos didn't inherit his property. Sears seemed an invincible institution 60 years ago. Property changes hands often in an open market as it is made better and resold. Productive property benefits it's community.

As a hypothetical, how am I justified in pointing a gun at another man and telling him to vacate my land (possibly presently unused) when he attempts to use it to feed his family and if he doesn't comply I will shoot him dead? Doesn't his basic need trump my property rights?

Where do you draw the line on how much he can steal? A few carrots? A pig? A barn? A daughter? One would say if you have land that is unprofitable, you would be inclined to rent it to the man for a % of his labours, or to direct him to a local church / charity, not kill him.

Presently unused but I claim ownership of it and through property rights deny all access to it. I either evict him through force or employ those with claimed authority (police, etc.) to do it for me. His family starves while the land sits unused but my rights are enforced.