Phil test 2 property

Question 1

what are the fundamentals of property rights

Answer 1

• the right to decide what use a good is put to out of the morally acceptable uses
• includes the right to possess, use, sell, bequeath, and modify
• right to exclude is very important, the property owner can prohibit others use of goods and set conditions of use

Question 2

what is the problem that property rights solve

Answer 2

there are various resources which many people have conflicting views on use, use of a good can be contradictory, property rights and private property solve this

Question 3

Rule Utilitarian argument for property

Answer 3

-the world contains various goods people may derive value from
-deriving value requires interacting with the goods in some tangible way
-many interactions are incompatible
-humans often disagree on their priorities
-thus the problem is which valuable uses of a good can be made and which shall not

Question 4

problem with fighting over resources

Answer 4

fighting causes enormous harm which may be greater than the value of the resources itself, only the best fighters will get goods, there will be a lot fewer goods because goods require work to produce, most people are self interested and if they cannot expect to reap the benefits of production then goods will not be produced

Question 5

problem with anyone using a resource whenever they want

Answer 5

a lot fewer goods because people are self-interested, tragedy of the commons

Question 6

problem with voting on property use

Answer 6

a vote cannot be expected to reliably benefit the producer

Question 7

problem with taking turns to use property

Answer 7

tragedy of the commons, there will be fewer goods because people are self-interested

Question 8

property rights solution

Answer 8

each good is assigned to a specific decision maker and everyone else respects that agents decision

Question 9

what is the hermit example meant to illustrate

Answer 9

One takes over a hermits hut that is outside the jurisdiction of any government. The man eats his food, uses his tools, and spray paints the house. Any rational person would see this as unacceptable. Our natural intuition is that this is wrong, thus the example displays that there are natural property rights outside of government