Sunday, July 29, 2012

Property

One of the caveats people have with anarchism in general, besides how we help the poor in a voluntary society which is my next post topic, is property and property rights. What is property? I suppose this post will be about more than just property and the rights that come along with it but also about how one would go about defending it in a free society, specifically the course of action if someone aggresses on your property through theft or whatever. First I'd like to establish what property is viewed as and how it is obtained. As voluntarists or anarcho-capitalists property is always going to be defined as something that is scarce, something that no two people can have claim to at one point without conflict. For example, a piece of land could be viewed as property or a car because no two people can claim ownership over them without having to take it from the other person. If something isn't scarce then an infinite number of people could claim ownership over something without directly taking from another person something they couldn't have otherwise. Property is ALWAYS going to be something physical or else it won't have the possibility of being scarce. Now hopefully it's more understood what property is regarded as the next step is how does one obtain said property? This belief is one that's ingrained in the idea of self-ownership, the belief that you own your body because you have the exclusive right over it since only you can make your body function in a productive way. To extend from that since you own your body and what you do with it you should own the so called fruits of your labor which is the productive ability your body can produce. Since you can produce things it would be immoral to say you don't own the things you use to make something else, i.e. if you turn your land into a farm with your labor you should naturally own the farm. The next step is how does one obtain property? This is settled by the first homesteader principle, which says the one to first use a natural resource to produce something should be the owner of that resource. If again you are the first person to turn a piece of land into a farm or a place for a house you should have the exclusive right over that land and no one should be able to take it from you. After you've used this natural resource and have claimed exclusive ownership over it you have the right to keep it indefinitely or enter a voluntary contract of said land for trade or for sale. I know that I said that I would go into how one would go about defending property if someone was to agress on your property but that would be a whole 'nother post in itself so I will not make this any longer than it needs to be. But to be sure we must understand that no one and I literally mean no one has the right to take any of your property without your consent especially if it's forced "consent". We are free people who are slaves to no one.

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