...benefit, as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be so held; and eventually the whole of the earth's...planet may thus lapse altogether into private hands. . . . Supposing the entire habitable globe be so enclosed, it follows that if the landowners have a...

...being privately appropriated. This, in turn, would generate the following unacceptable consequences: Supposing the entire habitable globe to be so enclosed...not landowners have no right at all to its surface. They are trespassers. Save by permission of the lords of the soil, they can have no room for the soles...

...and benefit as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be so held, and eventually the whole of the earth's...surface may be so held and our planet may thus lapse into private hands. Observe, now, the dilemma to which this leads: Supposing the entire habitable globe...

...benefit, as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be so held, and eventually the whole of the earth's surface may be so held." This truth of course holds good of other things besides the earth's surface. If one atom may be owned,...

...him for his sole use and benefit as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be so held; and our planet may thus lapse into private hands." — Herbert Spencer, in 1850, Social Statistics, Chapter IX. The Tools. Second....