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Friday, May 6, 2011

Who Owns Your Garbage?

I saw an amusing incident, walking home from work. A man was rummaging through the trash. A homeowner was shooing him away.

The State has no legitimate ownership claim to any property. That makes the garbage unowned.

The trash was in a bag. The man would have ripped the bag, to take the cans he wanted.

The homeowner has a right to say "I don't want someone rummaging through my garbage!" That means the garbage doesn't become unowned until the garbage man collects it. Until then, the homeowner can refuse to allow people to take it.

I also thought the homeowner was being silly. I was thinking "What is he going to do? Is he going to stand there all night? The guy is going to take your trash as soon as you go inside."

Also, calling the police would have been pointless. If your job is "picking through trash", then the threat of arrest isn't that severe. Police don't profit from kidnapping poor people for minor transgressions.

That was an interesting example of the failure of the State. The homeowner didn't want someone stealing his trash. The homeowner had no recourse, other than stand outside all day.

6 comments:

DC said...

FSK please let us know why you think silver went up and down so quickly. That is abnormal. To get a price swing like that is impressive. Is it just a Slim, Soros sell off?

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I can sympathize with the home owner. Any person who is picking through your trash is a potential security threat.

I have the opposite problem. A local newspaper company is throwing trash in front of my house once a week (in the form of a free newspaper). They hire a guy to drive around town to hand deliver them. I do not have a problem with that part, after all, the post office should not have a monopoly. The problem is that there is no way to opt out.

I know that it is technically illegal for them to litter, but we do not have a local police force. I am not about to call the state police because that might be illegal and I might end up in jail.

The reason this is important to me is that when I travel the newspapers pile up at the end of the driveway. If I were a thief that is exactly what I would look for to spot any easy mark.

As a deterrent I have one of those farm gates across my drive with a sign that states "Caution Bulls" with barbed wire on either side into the woods.

-DC

DC said...

By the way, by law even after the garbage man collects you trash you still are responsible for it. If your trash has any hazardous waste products you own it forever. In addition you are responsible for any cleanup costs in the future.

Cradle to grave.

Will Greece ever print the dracma again? I am on the edge of my seat. The Euro is a train reck waiting to happen. Is it just me thinking this? You can not have strong headed sovereign countries using the same fiat currency. The only way that Fiat currency works is when counties (states) are forced to use it under penalty of violence.
Will violence be used against Greece to force them to continue using the Euro?

I personally hate the Euro, so I welcome it's demise.

-I said it many years ago. Changing the name of a countrie's currency spells disaster.

FSK said...

Regarding silver, the margin requirements were jacked up, punishing longs.

Regarding trash, the "environmentally friendly" CFLs have mercury. You aren't supposed to throw them out. You're supposed to recycle them. You know that most people will throw them out and not recycle them.

Scott said...

Many times in a situation with two clear sides, both sides are wrong because they are both crazy or irrational. As most people are. It's a fallacy to believe that in a given dispute there must be a wrong side and a right side.

Scott said...

Regarding CFLs, we don't have any recycling. I called the trash company about this and they told me "Just throw it in, it's not very much mercury."

Anonymous said...

The state does not recognize private property, even when it says that it does.

Therefore this cannot be solved in any meaningful way, because one side of a trash dispute stands on a property and other does not. They think in different languages.


Absent state, you would pay a private garbage company to pick up and dispose off the trash from your private property. No one could get to it, because you will not be able to roll it out outside of your property line. Any garbage picker would therefore become a trespasser and a thief (filling in the role of the government;).

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