As human beings we are born with an innate understanding of property. This idea was recently validated by the work of experimental economist Bart Wilson. In his book The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind, Professor Wilson argues that the human property instinct evolved along with abstract reasoning and the production of compound tools – tools made by combining different elements.
Early humans used abstract thinking not only to create compound tools, but also to imbue those tools with the concept of mine (or not mine). Thus, a primitive spear became an extension of the mind and hands that created it. The great philosophical relevancy of this assertion is that the concept of property arose not as a right, but as an attribute of the created compound tool.
Stated differently, property resides in the object (the compound tool) and does not originate from outside the object. While the idea of mine (or not mine) may vary somewhat among cultures, the concept of property appears innate and universal. The concept of property is part of the way that we understand the world and cannot be successfully manipulated as socialists pretend. As argued by Robert E. Wright in his article The Property Instinct and the Utter Futility of Socialism, socialism is inhuman because it does not account for our human property instinct.
Similarly, Ludwig von Mises, an economist, historian, logician, and sociologist, who has been called “the greatest social thinker of the twentieth century” concluded that the only viable economic policy for humans was a policy of unrestricted free markets and the unhampered exercise of the right of private property. Von Mises is best known for his study of human choice and action (praxeology), and his argumentation that rational economic calculation is impossible under socialism: “If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.”
And yet, our property instinct is mostly ignored today in our misguided debates of equality versus equity. Equality is a central value of democracy. Equality embodies fairness and the principle from our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” Equity, on the other hand, refers to equal outcomes. Equity can only be achieved by forcefully taking from some to give to others. Advocates of “equity” argue that “equality” is not enough to bring about a just society, and that “equity” is the more important principle to guide our policymaking. They are prepared to disregard equality to impose equity.
This preference for “equity” ignores that, the forceful governmental interference in our economic life necessary for equitable outcomes leads to the destruction of economic life. Or, as von Mises put it, “Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state…The continued existence of society depends upon private property…Every socialist is a disguised dictator.”
The concept of private property has been an integral part of Western civilization since ancient Athens which, as noted by historian Richard Pipes, had “a highly developed system of private property.” Aristotle accepted private property as a positive force asserting that people that hold things individually tend to quarrel less than those who hold things in common. Thomas Aquinas also noted that “Quarrels arise more frequently where there is no division of things possessed.” Aquinas emphasized that possession of private property was not only lawful, but also necessary for peace and order.
Closer to home, John Adams believed that property “implies liberty because property cannot be secured unless the man be at liberty to acquire, use or part with it, at his discretion.” The Founding Fathers presciently rejected the concentration of government power we now call socialism. They understood that to disallow private property, or to enforce its equal distribution would be a denial of liberty.
Since the Founding, Americans have sought a society that restrains government. And nothing restrains government more than our desire to own the fruit of our labors. Our property instinct is not greed. It encourages wise decision-making and rewards industry, thrift, honesty, and ingenuity. It is the instinct that makes socialism unworkable.
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