The Right to Quiet

Last night some people gave their dogs pain killers to keep them from freaking out over the fireworks. Other people didn't give their dogs pain killers, and their dogs ran barking from corner to corner with their eyes popping out. Last night was a reminder to me that noise can be an infringement on property rights.

I should qualify this by pointing out that noise that's already there before you move in is very likely noise you consented to either through your concious acceptance or your stupidity. You can't get a house next to an outdoor shooting range and then have any reason to complain about guns going off. I live very near an airport, as anyone who watches my videos can tell. If I were the one who knowingly bought the house near the airport, and if I had a problem with the noise, my only legitimate claim would be that I was an idiot for moving in to a place that I should have known has so much noise.

Fireworks can be a similar case, in that we all pretty much know there's going to be fireworks on the night of July 4th. So I'm going to talk about another kind of noise. At the church where I grew up, it wasn't the custom to ring the bell until I reached 4th grade or so. People had already been living in the area, and were already accustomed to their quiet Sunday mornings, before the church started ringing its bell.

If there were people who already were living in that neighborhood and who enjoyed the quiet of it, and felt the quiet of their Sunday mornings disturbed by the bell ringing, then the ringing of the bell is something that impedes their subjective enjoyment of their property.

The main concern behind Switzerland's ban on the building of new minarets could have had something to it if it were about noise. For instance, a ban on amplifying calls to prayer would have made more sense than a ban on a particular kind of structure pointing into the air. Minarets themselves can't walk through your locked door or peak through a drawn curtain. Amplified noise can. However, none of the existing minarets in Switzerland had calls to prayer at the time voters approved the ban. If the ban on building minarets should make any sense, its supporters should show how the existence of a minaret can prevent someone from enjoying their property in the way they want to enjoy it, and I think that would be a hard argument to make.

Smell can be treated in a similar way that sound should be treated. If you move next to a feedlot, and then complain that the air smells like shit, then the only problem that's apparent is your own lack of foresight. If, however, someone buys property next to your own property and then puts a feedlot there, and you happen to strongly dislike the smell of shit in the air, then the feedlot is an infringement on your right to the subjective enjoyment of your property.