I prefer to have control over who lives in my residence (that's the same now as an "owner" (mortgagee) as when I was a tenant/renter). I assume most other people also desire that.
In order to accomplish that, we have a notion of property rights (the right to exclusive control of [including the right to exclude others from] the housing unit) and we allow those rights to be permanently or temporarily traded to others in exchange for money or other consideration.
Unless you don't care who lives in your housing unit from day to day, there's got to be some kind of property right in real property and a derivative right-to-exclude. If you want to call the right I have to my own house a monopoly on that particular property, you're technically right (the best kind of right). By that same argument, the corner gas station has a monopoly on selling the specific gasoline contained in its underground tank.
Land is indeed finite. That's one of the properties that makes it valuable.
In order to accomplish that, we have a notion of property rights (the right to exclusive control of [including the right to exclude others from] the housing unit) and we allow those rights to be permanently or temporarily traded to others in exchange for money or other consideration.
Unless you don't care who lives in your housing unit from day to day, there's got to be some kind of property right in real property and a derivative right-to-exclude. If you want to call the right I have to my own house a monopoly on that particular property, you're technically right (the best kind of right). By that same argument, the corner gas station has a monopoly on selling the specific gasoline contained in its underground tank.
Land is indeed finite. That's one of the properties that makes it valuable.