“Rothbardian Corn Planters” – Thought Experiment by Cormac Carroll (2014).
The Rothbardian proviso of land ownership states that if a person works a piece of unclaimed land into a thing of value, then said person becomes the owner of said land. However, I have formulated the following thought experiment to highlight an intrinsic problem with this notion:-
Imagine a large fertile field of free land which is not owned by anyone.
Man A appears and plants a number of stalks of corn in a uniform grid spanning the length and breadth of the field. The stalks begin to flourish. He has now worked the formerly free piece of land into a thing of value, and it would seem that he now simply owns said land if we are to follow the Rothbardian proviso.
However, Man B then appears, and he plants more stalks of corn in each one of the spaces between Man A’s corn stalks. Man B’s stalks also begin to flourish. Man A’s stalks remain healthy and unaffected by the close proximity of Man B’s stalks.
Man B points out that, under the Rothbardian proviso of ownership, he has every right to have planted his corn stalks where he did, for Man A has only technically worked the land at the exact point where he planted his corn-stalks. The patches in-between Man A’s corn stalks technically remained free and unworked land until Man B came along.
Man C then enters the fray and plants the same amount of corn as Man A and Man B put together, in the spaces between each of their crops, and all three crops begin to flourish together.
All three men have healthy yields of corn on many individual tiny patches of land they have rightfully claimed under the Rothbardian proviso, however now they are constantly getting in each other’s way and cannot easily identify who owns what corn... How can a Rothbardian libertarian progress from here, and what is to prevent Man D’s E’s F’s or G’s (et cetera) from appearing and doing the same ad infinitum?