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Comment by daenz | Hacker News Reader

>The better question would be why do we allow ownership of a beach.

Devil's advocate: why do we place such a high value on a "beach" vs any other kind of land? Is there something extra precious about where the water meets the land?

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There's a lot less of it than non beach front land for one.

It also has pretty universal recreational purposes. People love to go to beaches and swim, sunbathe, picnic, surf, play volleyball, etc. I'm surprised it's utility is even being questioned, this is a very strong cultural norm.

You can sunbathe, picnic, and play volleyball on any other land. Surfing is relatively new, and swimming isn't unique to oceans.

>I'm surprised it's utility is even being questioned, this is a very strong cultural norm.

In a world where even the most fundamental cultural norms are being questioned and upended, you're surprised that someone asks why a beach is so much more important than other land?

Yes there is. Just look at the average property values of beach front property, riverfront property etc... There are other "special" types of land as well with additional value that governments have decided to regulate differently.

I acknowledge that it is valued differently, I'm asking why we collectively do it.

Because beaches are nice.

Same reason we value ice cream over poop.

People like it, that's supply and demand in effect.

Access to navigable waterways has always been immensely valuable to humans. It's much easier to trade, travel, and transport.

Have you heard of anyone who has been unable to trade, travel, or transport because he could not use Vinod Khosla's beach as a loading dock, port, and harbor? Waterways have ports which are often publicly-owned or operated for commercial use.

The answer is “tradition”. Shore access has been important to human civilization since before recorded history. Wars have been fought over shore access.

Not shoreline specifically, but commercially-viable shoreline. Ports, harbors, rivers, etc; places where you can move people and things to other places. Generic stretch of beach is not such a place.

> Is there something extra precious about where the water meets the land?

Absolutely. Maybe not tangibly precious, but anyone whose ever stood on a beach and looked out over the ocean knows that there's definitely something special about it.

Is this not also true of many mountaintops, waterfalls, and canyons? Yet we allow private ownership of those.

There's a theory that we're hardwired to be drawn to shoreline, as accessing the resources of tidal zones would have been a definite competitive advantage for our ancestors.

Our natural obsession with tracking the moon also plays into this, as a way of predicting when tidal conditions are best to forage/fish/etc.

It's analogous to the theory where marathon hunting contributed to our physical endurance, brain power and predictive abilities, upright running, sweating, etc.

Both theories attempt to explain the general sense of pleasure we get from visiting the beach and long distance running, respectively.

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