In my posts on property rights(here, here, and here) I illustrated that such rights have been eroded over time, especially since the 1930s. Today it is often the case that you can own, technically, a piece of property but be unable to make use of it as you determine is in your best interest. Ayn Rand discusses this on her essay “The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus.”
Ownership without control is a contradiction in terms: it means “property,” without the right to use it or
[My primary inspiration for these posts comes from the article “Property and Principle” from the Objective Standard, and Eric Daniels’ course “Property Rights in American History,” available from the Ayn Rand e-store.]
I want to make a comment about the form of government that the founders attempted to create. They understood from studying history that a pure democracy could be just as tyrannical as a dictatorship. James Madison, in a letter to
[My primary inspiration for these posts comes from the article “Property and Principle” from the Objective Standard, and Eric Daniels’ course “Property Rights in American History,” available from the Ayn Rand e-store.]
Today it seems that one can hardly go a day without hearing about how “big money” is ruining our government. How we have “the best government money can buy.” Or how if only we could keep corporations, or the rich, from spending
I am getting more into “How Capitalism Saved America.” The topic in chapter 3 is the experience of the early settlers in what was to become the United States. In both Jamestown and Plymouth a collectivist approach was initially used, where all the people in the colony worked “to support the colony and to generate profits” for the underwriters of the colony.
I came across this 1792 quote from British agricultural writer Arthur Young while reading, still, “Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet.” As with so much in this book, it is applicable to more than just agriculture and food.
I thought this quote was a great one sentence summary of what happens when property rights are protected.
Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock and he will turn it into a garden; Give him a nine years’ lease of a garden and
I have come to realize in the past year that property rights, especially as the affect real estate, do not really exist any more in this country. With property taxes, you effectively just “rent” your property. Here in Vermont if you are late on paying your property taxes, I forgot the exact amount of time, but it is not much, the town can proceed initiate proceeds for a tax sale. It doesn’t matter how long you have owned the property, you can lose it due to a period of