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There are some libertarians who
attribute no moral obligations to those who
initially acquire property in natural resources.
In their view, those who acquire the resources
owe nothing extra to those who do not. Nozick
believes that those who acquire natural
resources owe something to those who do not if
the non-owners are net losers in the process.
But I want to point out that
there are also libertarians who argue for
obligations that exceed those recognized by
Nozick.
Peter Vallentyne is a
libertarian who believes in a strong form of
self-ownership, strong individual rights, and
strong property rights -- but he also believes
that those who initially acquire property in
natural resources owe something substantial to
those who do not. Here's a taste of what he
says:
Nozick is surely
right that his version of the Lockean
proviso is a necessary condition for
acquisition of rights over unowned
things. It is, however, arguably too
weak to be the only necessary
condition....One can allow that the
appropriator obtains rights over the
entire object, but insist that this is
conditional on her paying back to the
members of society the competitive value
(based on supply and demand; e.g., based
on an auction or a competitive market)
of the rights she has claimed over the
resource in its unimproved
state. This leaves the appropriator any
profits or benefits that she can reap
from the improvements (value added).
[Peter Vallentyne, "Nozick's Libertarian
Theory of Justice," p. 20]
The point is that there are
right-libertarians and left-libertarians. Left-libertarians
allow strong property rights, but also insist
on certain obligations to non-owners.
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