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Quotation of the Day…

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… is from pages 327-328 P.J. Hill’s Fall 1992 Cato Journal article, “Environmental Problems Under Socialism [2]“:

Private [property] rights are also a way of ensuring that those who control resources take account of the effect of present actions on future resource values.  Since the price of a resource reflects the capitalized value of the future income stream from that resource the decision makers have every reason to take account of future effects of their actions.

However, under a system of central planning and state ownership, it is much more likely that the resource manager will be short-sighted.  The lack of property rights means the decision makers are not penalized through decreases in the asset value when they ignore future consequences of their actions.

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