The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford Economics & Finance)

A classic book that I keep on returning to after many years. Whether you think you are on the left or the right, this is a book you need to grapple with to understand property rights, how they emerge and are transformed over time and in response to changing environments.

Oh sure, there was enough drama and violence to make for a few good movies, but there was also a surprising level of cooperation, coordination, and economic level-headedness to write an extremely entertaining and informative book!

The wild west is proof of anarchy working in reality. These private communities have proven to keep peace better than government/states controlled communities of people. Anarcho-Capitalism is, and will always be, the true anarchy and this proto-version of such a legal normative has proven to be more effective than our current legal norms.

This book treats about old subjetcs that are still relevant today and in every one of them it’s possible to see that the establish and enforcement of property rights is necessary to solve conflicts for scarce resources. It’s also clear how free associations and inciatives can do this work far better (low cost and more fairness) than any centralized authority. Already looking foward to read more from of Terry Anderson and Peter Hill!

Explains how the Wild West managed to have way more law and order than Americans tend to think. It covers how interference by Washington, which was clueless about conditions in the West, ended logical rules that were working. Arizonans, and their environment, are still paying the price for water rights legislated by a wet Washington over the arid West. For all those with an open mind who want to know what would happen if Washington left the states alone to govern themselves.