RE: A Message From the Chief Anarchist For the Anarcho Capitalist Peasants.
I think this meme is a legitimate criticism of the degree to which many people who identify themselves as anarcho-capitalists have underdeveloped standards for original appropriation of property and what constitutes abandonment of property. All forms of anarchy are based on applying the same ethical principles symmetrically across relationships such that some cannot forcibly externalize the cost of their choices on others.
If I demand that my property ownership must be recognized in the absence of any ongoing detectable maintenance/use relationship between me and the property in question, then I am externalizing the cost of determining ownership onto those who encounter the property I claim.
I don't think it's legitimate to simply claim ownership of undeveloped/unused land. Claiming and maintaining ownership for a person requires some observable mixing of action with the property in question. Whether that action is performed exclusively by the claimant or through consensual delegation to others is no concern of third parties.
To the top my friend.
Homesteading requires one mix their labour with the land in order to have any claim to own it.
It also requires they be personally responsible for the cost of enforcing any such claims.
I'll put up cameras and fences to protect my factory, because it makes me money.
I won't put up fences and cameras to protect 'my' forest, because it doesn't.
'Wealthy landowners' currently enjoy unlimited protection of assets courtesy of the state, with the cost of that protection externalised onto workers via taxation.
End that free ride, and vast tracts of undeveloped land become white elephants.