The public ownership of natural resources provides another opportunity for an ownership solution. Over the past 125 years, ownership to more than 3.2 million acres of government land has been conveyed on a similar basis. Though justified on the basis of jobs, mining employment is now at its lowest level ever. Nationwide, employment in the metal-extracting industries has plummeted 50 percent since 1980. Major U.S. corporations are also key beneficiaries.
Timber offers another classic case.
In exchange for logging fees, the U.S. Forest Service builds and maintains roads to access the timber. Only rarely do the fees cover the costs. In effect, taxpayers pay private timber companies to remove the public s trees. Again, the political trade-off is private access to public assets in exchange for jobs accompanied by no concern whatsoever for who owns the logging companies. An ownership perspective suggests two possible strategies.