… is from page 45 of Jim DeLong’s superb 1997 book, Property Matters:
The quality of my decision about a piece of property depends on the quality of the information and attention I bring to bear. Ownership provides me with incentives to get the right amount of information and to take it seriously. Should I turn my farm into a coal mine? How should I know, until I look at the markets for the different types of products, determine the long-term effects on the land and its uses, and consider how all of these will affect the way my family will live? Ownership gives me the motive to collect the information on these points.
