A Real Tragedy of the Commons

Over in Cafe Haey (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/) Don Boudreaux stubled onto a report at Veneconomy (http://www.veneconomy.com/eng/aldia/resumenOpina.asp?pub=966) discribing The Venezalian governments "constitutional mandate" to stip "idle" land way from "greedy industrialists" and "hand it over to groups of the population and organized communities for its productive, sustainable use."
I thought I should highlight just one of the myrid of problems associated with the illegeal consfication of private property. What the Venezalain government wants to do is create a tragedy of the commons (by not granting any private property rights). The effect of doing so is that every member of the "organized community" is going to try and gain maximal benifit out of the land. He will do this becuse the costs associated with him gaining maximal benifit will be diffused across the whole of the community. This concentration of benefits and diffusion of costs will provide incentives to destroy the community on the not-so-idle land.

Every memeber of the community will not want to be a "sucker" and therefore will pay the cost of his neighbor's benifit. Thus the community will deplete the resources by competeing in an arms race with the other members of his community to be the most productive. Without renewing the resources or taking measures to ensure its perpetuation the community will be soon back to its old state of destitution (all of this assumes, of course, the Venezuelan authorities will losen thier stifling regulations allowing these new producers to produce).

"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth-the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not it destroys him."