It All Starts With Property

Today's comment is by John Pugsley, Chairman of The Sovereign Society, and leading author on economics, investment and libertarianism.

I vaguely remember as a teenager being certain of just about everything. Now, six decades later, I'm not absolutely certain of much, with one exception: The world's conflicts, great and small, are conflicts over property.

Whether it's a conflict between governments, as is the current case with Israel and the Palestinians; between sects, as the case in Iraq between Shiites and Sunnis; or between plaintiffs and defendants in court, the battle is always over property.

The late physicist and teacher Andrew Galambos created precise and useful definitions of property. In The Theory of Volition , he broke property down into three classes:

1. "Primordial property" is a person's own life;
2. "Primary property" is his thoughts and ideas, and
3. "Secondary property" consists of things he creates from his ideas and efforts.

Based on these definitions, and the premise that interfering with property rights is the source of conflict, what road will lead to a peaceful, more prosperous world? Should each individual's life and the things he produces belong to him, or to others who might need it more?

Human nature itself holds the answer. Professor Edward O. Wilson, in his path-breaking book, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis , and three years later his Pulitzer-Prize-winning On Human Nature , argued that our social behavior is rooted in our genes. It evolved through natural selection.

Evidence is overwhelming that all animals, including human beings, are endowed with internal programs that urge us to mark the boundaries of our chosen habitats, defend against intrusions, and battle for food, lairs and mates.

In humans, this instinct pushes us to acquire property and to defend it against threats, theft, and trespassing. We "mark" our land with deeds; our bank accounts with name and number; and our mates with rings and contracts. We are angered and enraged when faced with aggression against our property.

I've explored the concept of property many times in these pages, and rightfully so, since The Sovereign Society was founded on a belief in individual property rights. Your body, your ideas, your home, your business, and your assets-everything you are or you create (with the exception of your children)-should be yours to control. Period.

I have no right to use your car if I need a ride, to force you to pay my rent when I'm broke, or to feed me if I'm hungry. Nor am I justified in enslaving you to protect me if I'm threatened. Neither I nor any other person or group is justified in interfering with your property in any way without your express permission.

Human nature insures that when one individual, or group, has power over the property, actions, and lives of another, that power will be used. As Lord Acton correctly stated, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Governments are the primary aggressors against individual property. The larger the government becomes, the more corrupt it becomes, the more property it confiscates, and therefore the more conflict it sows.

When we arrange our affairs to minimize taxation, regulation and privacy intrusions, we are responding to our natural instinct for survival. To the extent we succeed, we deprive government of resources, and slow or reverse its growth. We also provide encouragement to others to follow our example.

Our belief is that the highest level of human achievement and productivity will result when individuals have the greatest degree of control over their own property. It follows, then, that the less self-interested politicians and bureaucrats are endowed with the power to aggress against the lives and property of individuals, the higher the level of peace, productivity and human achievement will be.

As Andrew Galambos said, "Freedom is the societal condition that exists when every individual has full (i.e. 100%) control over his own property." The quest for freedom is truly a noble goal, and the only salvation for society. Once freedom is achieved, conflict is minimized. Our goal is a world in which all individuals are sovereign, and therefore free.