While we're at it, there should be a law against noisy kids playing
Why is it that many people here get red faced whenever someone hints at their private property and can't even imagine that some people might have a slightly different view of the world they're in ? Why do you want private property ? You want it because it helps you live a better life, basically. So I'll pass the ownership of land (as it's a dumb concept but unfortunately unavoidable to enable the ownership of immobile goods (like what's built upon it)), so property rights are just a visible barrier people put between them and others. It makes perfect sense to imagine this barrier having a different geometry for other people. I, for one, am very annoyed at people who take a bath in perfume and seem to have destroyed their nose doing it for their lifetime. Anyway, the whole thing is trying to live a better life through a mix of interaction with others and separation from others. And property rights is just a way to attain this. Someone needn't start tinkering with your owned stuff to interact with you, be it in a way you like or not. Property rights are only a part of the notional barrier, which is really the barrier of where others' freedom stops and yours begin. And it's a fuzzy barrier at best. Property rights are just an attempt at codifying it, and not perfect, though sufficient in a variety of ways. <rant> And to get back to this moronic argument that says "if you don't like smoke, don't go downwind", have you fucking considered that maybe I *didn't* go downwind, but the fucking smoker went upwind of where I was ? </rant> -- Vincent Penquerc'h