Objectivism 101

Lesson 7: Three political examples

The case of airwaves

Radio frequencies are a natural resource, although the possibility of using them was created by man's technology. Just as in the cases of opening new mines, or new recycling possibilities, technology is a necessary part of the search for new resources.

Natural resources involve less straightforward issues than the work done on these resources. Why ? As the right of self-ownership details, we own ourselves, our own actions, and the product of these actions. But nature is not produced by man.
If I transmit a radio stream to millions of people, I am entitled to the profit I have made on the basis of this stream. I have not produced the air, or radio waves themselves : they are products of natural law.

However, the systems we have described - libertarian, statist, anarchist - and their dynamics, still apply here.

The alternative of statism is the one we have today, where the government controls the use of airwaves tightly (in the United States, by the FCC).

The Act of 1927 [which created the FCC] did not confine the government to the role of a traffic policeman of the air who protects the rights of broadcasters from technical interference (which is all that was needed and all that a government should properly do). It established service to the "public interest, convenience, or necessity" as the criterion by which the [FCC] was to judge applicants for broadcasting licenses and accept or reject them. Since there is no such thing as "public interest" (...), since that collectivist catch-phrase has never been and can never be defined, it amounted to a blank check on totalitarian power over the broadcasting industry, granted to whatever bureaucrats happened to be appointed to the Commission.

As we have seen, ethics and politics are individual - only individuals benefit from their own actions or the actions of political institutions.

The collectivist premise behind the FCC, that broadcasters should be chosen for their benefit to the "public interest", is incoherent and necessarily entails total dictatorship. If we are to agree that all natural resources should be ruled by sole virtue of the "public interest", then all resources are necessarily under control of the state, including human beings.

In practice, the establishment of "public interest" is a blank check to the government to impose whatever political motivations it has on a given area.

The Act of 1927 was acclaimed as a victory over capitalism, but the airwaves were never regulated by a capitalist system. Rather they were dominated by our second alternative, anarchism - a system where no one's rights are protected.

Collectivists frequently cite the early years of radio as an example of the failure of free enterprise. In those years, when broadcasters had no property rights in radio, no legal protection or recourse, the airways were a chaotic no man's land where anyone could use any frequency he pleased and jam anyone else. Some professional broadcasters tried to divide their frequencies by private agreements, which they could not enforce on others, nor could they fight the interference of stray, maliciously mischievous amateurs. This state of affairs was used, then and now, to urge and justify government control of radio.

As for any natural resource ruled by an anarchic system, we observe the phenomenon of the Tragedy of the Commons. As no one prevented people from using the airwaves, the natural self-interested action was to take as much bandwidth as possible, which led to the problematic situation.
Furthermore, there was a possibility for criminal interference which was not countered, since there was no private property.

The proper answer to a Tragedy of the Commons situation is not dictatorship, but private property determined objectively. One such objective method is called homesteading. This is the solution that Ayn Rand presents :

A notable example of the proper method of establishing private ownership from scratch, in a previously ownerless area, is the Homestead Act of 1862 (...). The government offered a 160-acre farm to any adult citizen who would settle on it and cultivate it for five years, after which it would become his property.

By establishing private property, but also protecting it, homesteading prevents both the Tragedy of the Commons and political motivations. Because it follows individual rights, it is a proper Objectivist solution.

These quotes, and more reading on this subject, can be found in the "The Property Status of Airwaves" article, by Ayn Rand, in Capitalism : The Unknown Ideal (p122-129).

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