Walter Block - Water Capitalism: The Case for Privatizing Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and Aquifers

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Prior to the writing of histories, from before the dawn of civilization, the Homers of earth braved the elements to reach new vistas. This book is dedicated to those maniacal mariners who have revolutionized society in ways that the petrified toe-dippers of the world never believed possible. May ensuing adventurers continue that quest for excellence!

Mississippi River Watershed

Central California Watersheds. Note: The Tule/Kern Watershed (including Fresno and Bakersfield) does not drain to the ocean.

Gulf of Aden and Environs

South Florida

We authors wish to thank our intellectual predecessors. Together we are particularly beholden to those who established the Austrian School of Economics: Carl Menger, Eugen Bhm von Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and especially Murray Rothbard. It was the latter who through his adherence to the non-aggression principle, to private property rights, to libertarian principle, shines as a beacon for all those who wish to bring about the just society. Without these pillars of wisdom, this book would not have been possible.

We wish to thank Llewellyn Rockwell. It was his web site that provided the connection wherein the two of us, strangers no more, were able to embark together on this journey. We wish to thank the following students at Loyola University in New Orleans who provided great help with editing: Megan McAndrews, Christian Light, Ricardo Fast, Gage Counts, and Anton Chamberlin.

I thank Nathaniel Branden and Ayn Rand who first introduced me to libertarianism, and Murray N. Rothbard who completed my political philosophical education to full anarcho-capitalism and also to Austrian economics. I also thank my wife Marybeth for being there.

Important, though not of the sort that is usually recognized in an acknowledgment section of a book, is my 6th grade teacher (name withheld) who through his interminable lies, taught me to avoid paying homage to authority. For it is through him that my journey to the freedom principle started.

I especially wish to acknowledge J. Craig Green, P.E. as the water rights engineer and most importantly as the philosopher of freedom who mentored me in libertarian thought. Prior to meeting him, I had never met or read another Libertarian, though I had evolved into one. He aided me to overcome a few hurdles in my intellectual odyssey.

In addition to those scholars listed above, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to such writers as Lysander Spooner, Herbert Spencer, and more recently, Adam Fergusson, as well as many others.

Finally and not least, my wife Jeanne has provided me the support and the space to pursue this endeavor.

My life is like a stroll upon the beach, As near the oceans edge as I can go. Henry David Thoreau, The Fishers Boy, (1900)

This book is dedicated to the study of water privatization. No. That is not quite right. We, the authors of this book, will indeed analyze the arguments in favor of allowing private individuals to own bodies of water; but more: we shall also advocate this public policy, and attempt to refute objections to such a state of affairs.

Whoa. We have not, so far, said much of anything. Indeed, only one paragraph of this book, the previous one, has so far appeared for the readers edification/consideration. And yet, we fear, we are already in grave danger of shocking our entire audience. When people wrap their minds about this concept (private property for oceans, lakes, rivers, and aquifers) and realize we think they should function in much the same way as ownership of pizza, shoes, and cows, we realize many will likely call for the committal to a mental institution of the authors, that is, us.