And with regard to other property, Phil, even diamonds that will outlive you, and equities, cash, art, antiques, intellectual property etc etc. Does the State have the right to control how you own such stuff, how you use it and how you bequeath it?
Why should they take it away in terms of eroding your share of its value through tax levies? Why should someone pay a Mansion tax on a house worth £2M, but not on diamonds of the same or greater value for sake of argument? Why should you keep paying the State for something your family owns each time someone dies?
That is a false analogy.
Firstly; Diamonds are ( A) common as dirt- their "rarity" is an artificial construct of a monopolistic marketing consortium.
More diamonds are being dug up every day, and diamonds can even be Manufactured. Ergo, their supply grows just enough to support whatever price DeBeers chooses them to have.
Secondly; YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT DIAMONDS.
Sorry Drifter, but there are VERY few things in this world that are as limited and finite in supply as Habitable land. And very few things that qualify as things to which human beings MUST have access in order to survive.
I can live without a car. I can live, albeit meanly, without electricity. And Access to Both of those things is already strictly regulated.
But No human beings can live without land. I need it to so much as stand upon... much less to provide the crops and livestock that will feed me, the minerals, timber, oil, and other plant products from which all other goods I can own are derived.
To even try and equate Land with diamonds as similar is shockingly disingenuous.
If YOU take YOUR diamond, and shatter it with a hammer into dust.
it has ZERO effect upon the rest of humanity. ( except perhaps your wife)
If you leave YOUR property radioactive upon your death. An unlivable contaminant in the midst of other people's properties... it DOES have a lasting effect... and if that property has a ten thousand year heritage of providing lumber... or crops... to sustain human civilization... then you have just made a portion of that legacy unusable... and made it that much harder for humanity to thrive.
The ridiculously inflated pricing for what is one of the most common gemstones there is is perfectly reflective of the kind of Me First avarice that so underpins all arguments of Property.
Here in the States, the group putting together the Constitution had long winded debates about WHO would be given the franchise to vote.
The conservatives argued that only those who own property should have any say in governance.
It took Ben Franklin to provide the argument that proved what an ethically bankrupt concept that was.
He stood up and pointed out that their argument came down to this... If I Don't own an ass, I can not vote.... if i DO own an ass, I Can vote... therefore my vote does not represent ME... it represents my ass.
If what YOU do with YOUR property destroys the value of MY property... Then you have Taken something from me which you had no right to do.
This is just as true of housing prices and the water table as it is of whether you hit my car with your car on a public road- or out in the middle of an empty field.
Here's an analogous issue of "property"
Water.
You and I and all living things REQUIRE water to live.
You pull water out of your own well... from an aquifer that underlies everyone else's land, too. How much can you pull out? ALL of it? Just because your well is on your property?
Moreover... suppose you use that water for some industrial purpose that pollutes that water to the point of being unsafe to have around?
Are you gonna STORE all that water for all future time on YOUR land and guarantee that it won't escape back into the aquifer? Or into the river nearby from whence other people and living things derive Their drinking water?
In truth... you can not meaningfully OWN water, either. It flows downhill, and you can not invent a means of permanently containing it.
There is a Finite amount of freshwater on this world ( an amount that is actually shrinking ) and the notion that you can BUY some and do whatever you wish with it, without regard to the fact that that water will ultimately mix back in with everyone else's water is an expression of selfishness and obliviousness that borders on the criminal.
That is... most conservatives position on such issues reveals that they really don't give a rat's ass about the consequences of their actions on others as long as it satisfies or enriches THEM, today.
No republican smart enough to get into congress REALLY believes that global warming isn't man made.... its just a convenient position to take when you personally want to see Coal and Oil companies thrive, because you are invested in them, and global warming won't impact YOUR life because your over 50.
Try to come up with an argument for property ownership conferring absolute control over that property that ISN"T predicated upon personal selfishness and an abrogation of any responsibility to the rest of humanity, your neighbors, or the generations yet to be born.
( hint- diamonds, rolexes, and other artificially "valuable" luxury goods are not going to make a good argument. )
Another example is MONEY.
Should a society allow ALL the money in circulation to collect into a vast pool owned by a handful of people from which that money never leaves?
Of course not. We ALL depend upon the FLOW of money. money isn't an economy... only its MOVEMENT is the economy.
Ergo, governments have every right to heavily tax the wealth of the super rich, and tax them even more when they die. THEY don't need it anymore...and putting at least SOME of that money Back into play is critical... because without that, capitalist economic models ALWAYS result in the concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
Re-distribution is actually essential... just as water must evaporate and rain on the highlands... so that its flow downhill performs useful work... so, too, must government take money out of those vast lakes and oceans in which it collects, and rain it onto the impoverished highlands to ensure that money keeps coming INTO the the system in the hands of those who, just to survive MUST spend nearly every dollar they get.
Knowing that, inexorably, that money will flow thru the economy and find its way back into the bank of some person already hugely wealthy.
Its a money cycle, just like water is part of the water cycle.
Once you are dead... you will cease to have any impact on others and future generations.
But until that day... your right to swing your foot ENDS just shy of my ass.
And what you do with property kicks a LOT of asses- both now- for generations to come.
You can't build a disneyland on your property... without wearing out the roads your neighbors pay for. Without that traffic polluting their air, and clogging their communities.
You do not live, alone. You Can Not ACT without Effect.
You could not even obtain property without the help of the community from which you derive the livelihood that you use to purchase that property.
you are responsible for YOUR part in society... and in the legacy your society inherits from you... be that to your own children... or whatever other beneficiary you might name.
Sorry, we all have a SAY in what effect you are allowed to have.