In an actual collapse situation, nobody is going to respect property rights. He may have a head start in that he’s familiar with his own land, but there’s only so much land a single person can defend and maintain (and it’s much smaller than even a hobby farm).
Best case scenario for farmers is that they mostly get left alone, and then someone (everyone) steals their crops just before harvest. It’s unlikely people will have that much foresight, so I expect it’s just going to be a bunch of fighting over farmland, followed by starvation because no one had time to grow anything.
Part of the process is not what you will be left with after the collapse happens. You are right, no one will care about property rights or ownership during and after a collapse.
Part of the process is in building wealth before the collapse happens. The wealthy are building and hording wealth of all types right now … property, hardware and shelter … while at the same time building monetary wealth that will help them after the fact. Whoever has the most wealth right now or right at the moment of the collapse will be the ones who will survive the longest.
Those that have little to no wealth right now or at the moment of the collapse will be the first ones fighting some ugly conflicts over food and water while the rich hide in their defended small plots of land.
The poor will do the fighting and dying among themselves while the rich will sit quietly watching the fireworks from far away.
In an actual collapse situation, nobody is going to respect property rights. He may have a head start in that he’s familiar with his own land, but there’s only so much land a single person can defend and maintain (and it’s much smaller than even a hobby farm).
Best case scenario for farmers is that they mostly get left alone, and then someone (everyone) steals their crops just before harvest. It’s unlikely people will have that much foresight, so I expect it’s just going to be a bunch of fighting over farmland, followed by starvation because no one had time to grow anything.
Part of the process is not what you will be left with after the collapse happens. You are right, no one will care about property rights or ownership during and after a collapse.
Part of the process is in building wealth before the collapse happens. The wealthy are building and hording wealth of all types right now … property, hardware and shelter … while at the same time building monetary wealth that will help them after the fact. Whoever has the most wealth right now or right at the moment of the collapse will be the ones who will survive the longest.
Those that have little to no wealth right now or at the moment of the collapse will be the first ones fighting some ugly conflicts over food and water while the rich hide in their defended small plots of land.
The poor will do the fighting and dying among themselves while the rich will sit quietly watching the fireworks from far away.