Since I was a small child I have always enjoyed this little political message about the fallacy of not having a suitable rights-enforcement body ensuring property rights of individuals in their jurisdictional area are upheld.
The Lorax was clearly the sole caretaker/maintainer/improver of the land, fauna and flora and therefore the proper owner of the idyllic setting the Onceler came across. Rather than attempting to negotiate agreeable use of the land and resources in exchange for recompense, the Onceler just moved his gang in to systematically steal and destroy the Lorax's property (this is revealed in the first 5 minutes of the film).
Clearly this was an anarchic state with no specific judiciary or security forces to enforce property rights. The Lorax, lacking independent power to protect his property had to resort to negotiation, which the Onceler - with greater numbers, finances, and physical resources, and in the absence of any property rights enforcement bodies - was able to safely ignore.
My children love this story. They can appreciate that human rights include property rights, and they see that things would have been better for both the Lorax and the Onceler if a properly constructed rights-enforcing framework had been in place at the outset. Alternately the Lorax could merely have been in possession of a semi-automatic weapon.
The Lorax was clearly the sole caretaker/maintainer/improver of the land, fauna and flora and therefore the proper owner of the idyllic setting the Onceler came across. Rather than attempting to negotiate agreeable use of the land and resources in exchange for recompense, the Onceler just moved his gang in to systematically steal and destroy the Lorax's property (this is revealed in the first 5 minutes of the film).
Clearly this was an anarchic state with no specific judiciary or security forces to enforce property rights. The Lorax, lacking independent power to protect his property had to resort to negotiation, which the Onceler - with greater numbers, finances, and physical resources, and in the absence of any property rights enforcement bodies - was able to safely ignore.
My children love this story. They can appreciate that human rights include property rights, and they see that things would have been better for both the Lorax and the Onceler if a properly constructed rights-enforcing framework had been in place at the outset. Alternately the Lorax could merely have been in possession of a semi-automatic weapon.