[rktman]

Hmmmm. Looks like us taxpayers own some water as well. Oh, it's not us it's the feds? Can we charge them rent? I don't seem to remember anyone(us) siging papers to fess up with all this land. And I also don't see any designation as to how much land ted turner holds. I think I read someplace that he holds more land than any other individual in the country. I could be wrong. (again)

[Pearls Before Swine]

Do the rapidly proliferating National Monument lands count as part of Uncle Sam’s empire? Or were they already “his”, with the designation just reducing “our” usage, for example, as in logging, grazing, or just toolin’ around.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

The doctrine being “all land has an owner.” Maybe you want Warren Buffett to own it all?

[DJ MacWoW]

Tis The Season
To End The FReepathon

Click The Pic To Donate

[Robert DeLong]

With approximately two million acres of personal and ranch land, Ted Turner is the second largest individual landholder in North America

Liberty Media tycoon John Malone owns 2.2 million acres, more than twice the size of Delaware.

[sphinx]

Just to start the discussion in the right place: it is important to remember that most of the U.S. west of the Appalachians came into the Union as federal estate. After the Revolution, the first 13 states had inherited various and often conflicting western land claims from the British Crown, based on grants drawn by "statesmen" in London for territories that had not yet been mapped or explored. Had we been Europeans, we might still be fighting wars over these today.

Instead, the states with such claims agreed to yield them to the federal government in the interest of a coherent (and peaceful) national settlement policy in the West. Then followed the Louisiana purchase, the acquisition of Florida from Spain, the conquest of the southwest from Mexico, the Gadsden purchase, the settlement with Britain over the Pacific Northwest territories, and the purchase of Alaska from Russia. The exceptions to the rule were Texas and Hawaii, both of which were independent republics before joining the Union.

The feds by and large did not "take" land from the states and the people; the federal government always owned it. What changed in the late 19th century was the longstanding policy of privatizing the federal estate as rapidly as possible, which is why federal lands are concentrated in the West.

If I could wave a magic wand and redistribute the acreage, I would sell off some of the federal lands in the West and increase federal parkland in the East (especially, given the targets of opportunity, for historical preservation). A lot of the nutty politics regarding federal lands arises from maldistribution. People in the West live surrounded by federal lands, and the feds are not always sensitive to their needs. The overcrowded East, however, would benefit from increased parks and open space, especially in proximity to major cities. History has dealt us a problem.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Can we charge them rent? “

I know you are half joking, but I like this idea. We start by charging $10,000 per year rent to every member of congress.Let’s see how fast the fedgov sells off government held land : )

[MarkL]

First buy up all the property, and make private property ownership illegal.

Then the government doesn’t just own everything, the leviathan will also own everyone.

Mark

[Seattle Conservative]

Thanks for sharing! Bkmrk

[dangus]

The ENTIRE state of Tennessee?

[rarestia]

My God... that website has more trackers and ad service hooks than Fox has actual news! I can’t bring myself to turn off my script, adware, and tracking software blockers to see the actual map. I’m sure it’s a lot.

[Flick Lives]

The Daily Caller is so overwhelmed with ad content that by the time my adblocker software is finished, the site renders with a header, footer, and no content!