Property Rights

Robert Reich is an economic fallacy machine, and he has begun a ten-week series in which he claims to debunk economic myths. Of course, to do so, he has to create economic myths and present them as factual.

Robert Reich is an economic fallacy machine, and he has begun a ten-week series in which he claims to debunk economic myths. Of course, to do so, he has to create economic myths and present them as factual.

Asset forfeiture is another term for state-sponsored theft. Reform of this pernicious policy is almost impossible because of the incentives set up by governments at all levels.

What makes a libertarian society libertarian? Certainly, one must begin—as did Murray Rothbard—not only with the nonaggression principle, but also with the unequivocal protection of private property rights.

The concrete effects of the destruction of money and property on human personality are demonstrated most vividly in the historical episode of the German hyperinflation of 1923.

Most people believe that the state is a necessary entity for securing private property rights. However, a study of the American West before the territories became states shows us a different reality where communities protected their property without state intervention.

In a recent symposium on Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty, philosopher Matt Zwolinski takes issue with Rothbard on Murray’s views of freedom and property rights.

Do we need government to referee all of our property disputes? Throughout history, people have peacefully resolved disputes without the help of state authorities. 

In publicly opposing apartheid, William H. Hutt saw how legal segregation kept black South Africans from pursuing legitimate economic goals. To Hutt, apartheid deprived people of equality of economic opportunity, which kept them in poverty.

What are property rights and how do we define them? The late Butler Shaffer argued that they come from our “will to own.”