Let's say we live in a pastoral village in a free society. Then some businessman opens a factory next to the village. It is a silent factory, but its very ugly and ruins the view for everyone in the village. What could the village people do in order to stop the businessman?
I dunno. Lets ask the DU.
Not buy the factory goods, tell others to not buy the factory goods, try to negotiate with the owner of the factory (maybe even pay him), make life hard for the factory.
When you buy land to settle in the village you buy the property. The view is free but dynamic and not necessarily gonna stay the same. Arguing that when you pay for the house you are also paying for the neighborhood is false, because the previous owner didn't own the view/neighborhood.
The better question is what to do if it's loud (to me, at least).
If it's not a very large problem, if the vast majority of citizens don't really care, then there will be only a small demand in the town for the factory to change and this will mean that likely nothing will be done, but this will be because of the fact that the citizens do not care enough to make something happen. If the factory is widely considered a menace then the people of the town could collectively attempt to organize and stop the businessman in several ways
1. Attempting to limit the number of laborers who work at the factory. if the businessman is relying mostly upon local labor then with some collective action people could be put off from working there unless the wages are really good. If labor from elsewhere is brought in then the town could attempt to make its plight known to other areas then people may well consider the job more and more distasteful, so they will not work there except for a higher wage, harming the business, and then the group would make it clear that if it's demands were met then it would no longer oppose the actions of the businessman and he could hire local labor cheaply once more.
2. Directly subsidize the modifications that would be needed to make the factor attractive.
3. Especially if the businessman is a local resident they could ostracize him.
4. Promote input industries or other businesses that the factory would have to work with to cease association with the factory in question or to only do so for more $$
5. Promise some sort of direct buying deal with the factory owner if he is to alter his factory to make it pleasant
6. Something I can't come up with. The fact is that humans are ingenious creatures, the extent of our problem solving abilities is impressive and given free reign over what they can do through collective association who knows what solutions they could come up with. I do not believe that in a free society collective action would cease, not by a long shot. I believe firmly that collective organizations would continue totally voluntarily, what this would in effect mean would be something approaching competitive voluntary governments, exactly what kinds of tools would become prevalent to such organization I don't know, but I think that they would be effective and all around beneficial
Eugene: Let's say we live in a pastoral village in a free society. Then some businessman opens a factory next to the village. It is a silent factory, but its very ugly and ruins the view for everyone in the village. What could the village people do in order to stop the businessman?
Any businessman who would just buy the plot, build a factory while being completely oblivous to (or dismissive of) the whole village being pissed off, would not last long in business.
As to the villagers, they would be well advised to manifest their love/valuation of great views through either buying up the land around their village ahead of time or outbidding the businessman for it.
Any businessman who would just buy the plot, build a factory while being completely oblivious to (or dismissive of) the whole village being pissed off, would not last long in business.
That is a good practical point, yet I think the question is more theoretical and includes a hidden "what if the owner just doesn't give a damn for the money and opinion of people"
I agree with this. I was thinking of adding it in another post but you beat me to it.
Consider neighborhood laws where you are not allowed to paint your house a certain way. The same could be instituted by the village on the whole village (without governmental control, of course). Also, if the village has no such laws, you should take this into consideration before buying a house there (because the factory problem might occur).