The Political Rhetoric of Property and Natural Resource Ownership: A Meditation on Chance, Taxation and Appalachia
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Society & Natural Resources
Publication Date
2012
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2011.611964
Abstract
While our legal system embraces a myriad of forms of property, our political rhetoric of property narrowly speaks of individual ownership and control, fostering a strong dichotomy between public and private property. This rhetoric has also led us to embrace a chance-based division of our natural resource wealth and to refrain from significantly taxing these resources. I compare alternative methods of natural resource ownership in the United States and Australia, suggesting that poverty in natural-resource-rich areas such as Appalachia might be addressed by changes in taxation of natural-resource wealth. Addressing the notion of personal-identity-connected-with-property as a traditional objection to changes in property law structures, I suggest that due to the development of a strong regional identity, Appalachia offers an example of one case where personal connections to land favor changes in existing property structures.
Recommended Citation
Jill M. Fraley, The Political Rhetoric of Property and Natural Resource Ownership: A Meditation on Chance, Taxation and Appalachia, 25 Soc'y & Nat. Res. 127 (2012).