Property, the Law, Liberty, and the State

Some people are confused about the relationship between property, the law, liberty, and the role of government.

Most do not understand that first and foremost, liberty belongs to each individual. They own certain basic rights to life and liberty even before they emerge from the womb. Governments cannot take away rights, only infringe upon them.

One of our basic rights as human beings is that of pursuing property. We have no right to property in the socialist sense of having property doled out to us. However, we can pursue it and once obtained, we can keep it. This right is also independent of government. We do not need government's permission to obtain or own it. Laws and legislatures do not exist to create rights or property because these concepts exist whether or not you have a government.

The purpose of government is to defend rights and property, not to interfere in the system to impose its idea of justice. Justice comes when each are free to pursue opportunities. Justice is not created when outcomes end up equal regardless of merit, work, or even luck. Gaps between richer and poorer occur because of different levels of productivity and they are natural. Left alone, those who have less will work to their own personal level of satisfaction. Some are satisfied with a small home, satellite TV, and a pickup truck and will only invest enough labor to achieve that level of material reward. Others have higher ambitions. If their judgment and level of work investment reflect those, they will obtain a higher material reward. That is justice.

Law and government becomes perverted when the state moves outside its necessary guidelines. Actions in the economic sphere by the government only reflect political morality, not recognition of rights. Implementation of a government ideal of justice and morality only causes dissent, disharmony, and disobedience. It is not cooperation, it is not compassion, it is coerced conformity.

These ideas were written almost a hundred and fifty years ago by the French economist Claude Frederic Bastiat. They are more relevant now than ever.