If that is true, government ownership of vast areas of our nation becomes a key point of conflict. It is thus no surprise that the elimination of private property ownership has become a primary goal of opponents of free enterprise. Placing increasing amounts of private land in government ownership has become a key tactic in this conflict, whether by government condemnation or purchase by environmental groups such as The Nature Conservancy, which sells substantial amounts of the land that it buys from individuals to the federal government.

What will become of the personal right to liberty if government becomes the nation’s dominant landowner?

That raises another question: How much of America’s 1,940,011,400 acres does government already own?

The federal government manages a third—32.6 percent in 1992—of the entire nation, mostly in rural areas, "a huge federal domain of ownership that is hard to reconcile with the reputation this country has as a citadel of reliance on markets and the private sector," as the President’s Commission on Privatization reported in 1988. "Privatization: Toward More Effective Government," Report of the President’s Commission on Privatization, David F. Linowes, Chairman, March, 1988, p. 242.

Every one of the fifty states contains land owned by the federal government, not just the eleven Western states we usually think of as being federally dominated.

Delaware is 19% federally owned; New Jersey and New Hampshire are both 13.2% federal; Virginia is 11.8% federal; and the feds own more than 7% each of Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Nevada is more than 82% federal land; Alaska is 66%; Utah, 64%; Idaho, 62%; Oregon, 60%; Wyoming, 49%; California nearly 47%; Arizona 44%, and so forth down to Washington, at 26.8% the least federally owned Western state besides Hawaii (16.7%).

However, there is no complete accounting of America's state, county and local government land ownership.

In other words, we do not know how much of America is owned by a government.

Part of the reason is the vast number of governments enumerated in the 1992 Census of Governments, which identified 85,006 government units that existed in the United States as of January 1992.

In addition to the federal government and the 50 state governments, there are 84,955 units of local government. Of these, 38,978 are general-purpose local governments—3,043 county governments, and 35,935 subcounty general-purpose governments (including 19,279 municipal governments and 16,656 town or township governments). The remainder, more than half the total number, are special-purpose local governments, including 14,422 school district governments and 31,555 special district governments such as port authorities, local improvement districts, conservation districts, and so on. 1992 Census of Governments, Volume 1, Number 1, Government Organization, Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1996, p. 7.

There is not and never has been a census figure on the amount of land owned by governments in the United States. Some analysts believe the total government ownership is at least 40 percent of the land area of our nation. Guesses range to over half of the land in government ownership.

And that amount is growing rapidly as literally hundreds of areas are proposed for federal takeover by various environmental groups.

Who are the greedy?

The policy that would best enhance individual liberty is to reverse today's trend toward nationalization and divest government land ownerships into individual hands, free of easements and other burdens on title.

Land ownership is not the only property right. Violated property rights currently include:

Water Rights (Klamath Basin farmers)

Grazing Rights (Southwestern ranchers)

Mining Rights (Western miners denied permits after fulfilling all requirements)

Timber Rights (Hardwood chip mills)

Store Owner Rights (Trespass and intimidation attacks on Home Depot, Staples, others)

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