Legislação Pública versus Regulamentação Privada

Privatize the Airwaves!

"The spectrum started out as a privately owned, homesteaded resource, as innovators discovered how to use it to satisfy various human wants (information, entertainment, et cetera). Of course, in the early days of radio, broadcasters interfered with one another’s transmissions. But rather than asking the government to nationalize the airwaves, they went to court, just as landowners did in cases of trespass. The courts responded by applying the common-law principles of ownership. As a result, an orderly system of private airwaves was emerging, until it was derailed in the 1920s by the commerce secretary, Herbert Hoover, who has an odd reputation as a champion of laissez faire. As historian Murray Rothbard described it, “Hoover by sheer administrative fiat and the drumming up of ‘voluntary cooperation’ was able to control and dictate to the radio industry and keep the airwaves nationalized until he could secure passage of the Radio Act of 1927. The act established the government as inalienable owner of the airwaves, the uses of which were then granted to designated licensed favorites.” In return for licenses, the government imposed various obligations." Sheldon Richman, FFF, April 26, 2004

Nota: O "homesteading" (ocupação e uso) do espectro e o litigio entre as partes, processo que conferia e atribuia (naturalmente) direitos de propriedade, foi invadido pela interferência política e a sua legislação e licenciamento.

O mesmo se passou em relação à poluição. Em vez dos tribunais decidirem que direitos é que estão em causa, o que se deu foi a nacionalização do litigio nas questões ambientais. E por causa disso, temos provavelmente bem mais poluição do que num mundo livre e privatizado.