Fished to Death

     Many ocean fisheries are being fished to death.  This
destruction isn't the product of ignorance, or even
shortsightedness, of the fishermen.  They know what they are
doing and do it anyway.  The over fishing makes perfect sense
under the rules that prevail.

     The fishers earn more income by catching more fish now. 
If some fishers limit their catch, others will catch more.  The
result is that income is shifted from those who limit fishing to
those who don't.  Those who limit fishing do nothing to increase
fish for future catches.  Thus, each fisher is better off catching
as many fish as possible, as soon as possible.

     The only way to preserve the fish is to change the rules
of the game.  If someone owns and controls the fish, he will
have the incentive to limit fishing now in order to catch more
fish later.

     Private owners gain by preserving resources for future
production.  That which is "owned" by everyone is in reality
owned by no one.  Each tries to grab a larger share before the
resource is gone.  The US publicly "owned" buffalo heard was
hunted to near extinction.  Private ownership of some of the
remnant saved the buffalo.

     This column is about something far more important than
preserving fish and buffalo.  It is about preserving all of the
resources, natural and man made, upon which our survival
depends.

     The productivity boom of the industrial revolution sprung
from secure private ownership.  Entrepreneurs and investors
gained by preserving and enhancing the productive resources. 
Consumers reaped the benefits of increased productivity.

     Imagine a world where everything is owned by everyone. 
It would be like the ocean fisheries.  Most people would seek to
grab as much as they could before someone else grabbed it. 
Most, even all, might realize that they were destroying their
future.

     Each would be powerless to protect the future.  Thus,
they might as well eat, drink and be merry while they still could. 
Starving and suffering now wouldn't prevent starving and
suffering in the future.  The only hope would be to alter the
rules and establish private ownership that rewarded conservation
and productivity.

     Brick by brick we are dismantling the private ownership
that is the foundation of our prosperity.  In name at least, private
ownership is hanging on.  Ownership is the ability to control the
thing owned.  How much control do businesses and other owners
now have over what they supposedly own?

     Endless laws and regulations force "owners" to allow
others to gain benefits from the property the so-called owners
"own."  The "owners" discover that attempts to preserve their
property and its productivity are useless.  The benefits go to
someone else.  The "owner" is better off consuming his property
before someone else does.  The resources essential to future
production are consumed, like the fish in the oceans.

     Even worse, government seizes much wealth and tosses it
into the public ownership bowl.  It is up for grabs.  This grab
bowl contained only about 6 percent of what was produced in
1900.  The grab bowl now sucks up 40 percent or so of what we
produce.

     Everyone might as well grab as much as they can.  If
they don't someone else will grab it.  It won't be saved to
produce for the future.  Again, like the fish in the oceans, it will
be gone.

     Expecting individuals to refrain from dipping into the
grab bowl is unrealistic.  So long as the grab bowl is there, it
makes perfect sense to grab as much as you can.

     Government's solution is to raise taxes and increase
borrowing to fill the grab bowl.  This isn't a solution. 
Eventually government will toss everything into the grab bowl. 
There will be nothing left to use in production to replenish the
grab bowl.  The only way to avoid the disastrous end  is to
change the rules.  We must end the grab bowl and return to
secure private ownership of our resources.  Otherwise, we will
fish ourselves to death.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2013
Albert D. McCallum