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What happens when all the land possible is owned already in the future?

What happens when all the land possible is owned already in the future?

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December 26, 2023

Question: What happens when all the land possible is owned already in the future?

Answer: Well, that’s an interesting question. What happens when all of the Rembrandt paintings are already owned? What happens when all of the cars made in 1960 are already owned? There is an economics of scarcity, of course, that kicks in; prices go up, demand diminishes in various ways. But it also is the case that it provides incentives for smart, creative people to think about technological and engineering solutions.

Now, we have much more land than we have Rembrandt paintings and so forth, but think of engineering solutions like sea reclamation projects. Or, giant ships that can cruise the ocean or park themselves in the ocean for people to live on, or building up in skyscrapers, or building more underground, the way we often do with car parks now. Clever human beings will always figure out a way to have enough stuff that’s valuable.

Stephen Hicks Ph.D.
About the author:
Stephen Hicks Ph.D.

Stephen R. C. Hicks is a Senior Scholar for The Atlas Society and Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is also the Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford University.

He is author of The Art of Reasoning: Readings for Logical Analysis (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy, 2004), Nietzsche and the Nazis (Ockham’s Razor, 2010),  Entrepreneurial Living (CEEF, 2016), Liberalism Pro and Con (Connor Court, 2020), Art: Modern, Postmodern, and Beyond (with Michael Newberry, 2021) and Eight Philosophies of Education (2022). He has published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, and The Wall Street Journal. His writings have been translated into 20 languages.

He has been Visiting Professor of Business Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Visiting Fellow at the Social Philosophy & Policy Center in Bowling Green, Ohio, Visiting Professor at the University of Kasimir the Great, Poland, Visiting Fellow at Harris Manchester College of Oxford University, England, and Visiting Professor at Jagiellonian University, Poland.

His B.A. and M.A. degrees are from the University of Guelph, Canada. His Ph.D. in Philosophy is from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.

In 2010, he won his university’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

His Open College podcast series is published by Possibly Correct Productions, Toronto. His video lectures and interviews are online at CEE Video Channel, and his website is StephenHicks.org.  


Instagram Takeover Questions:

Every week we solicit questions from our 100K followers on Instagram (a social media platform popular with young people. Once a month we feature Stephen Hicks' answers to select questions, transcripts below:

Also several articles, selected for likely interest to Objectivist audiences:

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