Issue Water Rights

THE ISSUE: Arizona is a desert state; it did not have much drinking water to begin with. But government has mismanaged the water supply to such an extent that there will be a serious shortage of drinking water before long.

THE PRINCIPLE: We advocate the establishment of an efficient and just system of private water rights, applied to all bodies of water, surface and underground. Such a system should be built upon a doctrine of first claim and use. The allocation of water should be governed by unrestricted competition and unregulated prices. All government restrictions upon private use, voluntary transfer of water rights, or of the water from such rights, must be eliminated.

LIBERTARIAN SOLUTIONS: Government's monopoly of the water supply has been an exercise in futility. Simple economics tells us that when the supply of a limited resource decreases and demand increases, the price must increase in order to reach equilibrium. Instead, government-managed water companies charge obscenely low prices for water, thereby encouraging citizens to waste a scarce resource. Government water rationing and similar controls only exacerbates the problem.

LIBERTARIAN ACTION/TRANSITION: As a first step, we call for the re-introduction of the basic principles of supply and demand into the management of the water supply. The prices that water companies charge in Arizona are even lower than what can be found in states where water is plentiful. Arizona cannot survive forever like this.

But government is never willing to admit defeat, even against the laws of nature and economics. The survival of the Arizona water supply truly depends on privatization of these resources.