What is private property? Private property is the legally recognized ability of individuals to claim ownership of items including real property but not exclusive to real property. For example, copyrights and patents protect the private property rights of ideas and inventions. Without the ability to own property there is no foundation for freedom.
If all property and ideas are communal (belong to the society) how do you provide for your own needs? And if you can’t provide for your own needs how can anyone be free? The opposite of freedom is dependency. This is not the home of the dependent it is the home of the free. The founders were adamant about private property and understood the importance of it to a free and strong economic foundation. The communists and socialists believe property is owned by the society and the government is the arbiter of how the resources of society are distributed. Our government is acting more and more as if private property is owned by the state. Take the financial industry and auto industry takeovers of the past few years. These acts were appalling for anyone that believes in freedom and capitalism and it was extremely disappointing for people that believe in and respect the Constitution of the United States. The latest example is forcing individuals to use their own private property to buy health insurance. Money is private property.
There are many examples of private property breaches by our government including a number of eminent domain cases that took private real property because a government bureaucracy deemed that the property was more valuable to the community if developed into a mall. It was argued that the private homes generated less tax revenue than a proposed mall therefore it was in the interest of the government to take the property. A huge stretch of the original intent of eminent domain law.
Think about how different everything would be if everything you owned was no longer protected by private property rights. If we all shared property what would be the consequences we would face? We don’t have to look far for current examples. Drive through any major city and visit a government housing project where no one owns the property or even pays a rental fee. Filth and decay. When no one owns or has a stake in a property no one cares what happens to it. When individuals don’t have a stake in something it will fail. Communes have been tried around the world and they always fail because people are self interested and private property rights support the human condition to survive.
As the federal government expands its reach property rights are undermined. Healthcare is the latest example of a failure to understand private property. Healthcare is the exchange of our property (money) with a doctor’s private property (knowledge) to attend to our health issues. As the government interjects itself into the process they are forcing patients to submit their property (money) to a pool that will decide what fee they will pay for a doctor’s private property (knowledge). This removes our freedom to choose a doctor and limits a doctor’s freedom to charge what his patients are willing to pay. The free market is based on each party exchanging their private property for a value agreed amongst the parties.
Private property is often seen in the simple light of owning a home. But private property rights are about putting a wall around us as individuals to protect the things we invest in from confiscation and devaluation by others. Private property is a wall that protects us from the government and other groups that want to steal what we have earned or achieved. The only reason most people work is because their labor is a private property exchange with an employer. The employer pays us dollars (private property) in exchange for painting a house, cooking a meal, flying a plane, driving a bus, etc… property that they own which allows them to charge others for the use of their services. Their private property can then be used to exchange the dollars to pay you and keep the left over as profit (private property). If no one could own a plane, or bus, restaurant, business or their skills and knowledge there would be no foundation to generate a vibrant economy.
We need to look at everything we do as a private enterprise and everything the government does as a communal enterprise. That is why the constitution was created, to limit the federal government to the things we needed as a nation. They were simply a military for protection of our rights, a court system to protect our civil rights, the power to negotiate with foreign powers on behalf of the nation and to improve and solidify our economic rights, and to keep commerce regular between states in a way that laid a foundation for the free flow of trade. These can all be argued are for the good of the nation. Telling us who we must choose as a doctor, what companies are allowed to succeed or fail, or how many calories must be in a Big Mac are better left in the private sector.
Private property rights is more than real estate, it is freedom…
True knowledge of American history is necessary to insure the future of the America we love… This is an important time in our country's history. We must be wise and measured as we choose our leaders going forward.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Tea Party…
The Tea Party movement is under assault and there is a concerted effort to define them as radical outsiders and hell bent on destroying the federal government. The attacks are coming from politicians that believe they know best about the things we need, and will take all the resource necessary to deliver on their grand promises. The Tea Party disagrees.
The founders of this nation were patriots that at the time were being defined in a similar fashion by the British establishment as Washington today is defining the Tea Party. It is amazing how history repeats itself when people fail to study their history. The Tea Party is simply asking the federal government to act within the constitution and live within the means we the people have set for them. There is no terrorism or radicalism in that philosophy. It is a simple request and it will be adhered to one way or the other. The government serves at the will of the people. The Tea Party represents the people.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
The Tea Party is simply returning to the principles we were founded on and if we as a nation want to change those principles the constitution provides a mechanism to do so through the amendment process. The people that are intent on defining the Tea Party as terrorists are truly the radical element and need to be ejected from the leadership of our country. They know they are about to be sent home in 2012 so they have decided the only way they can survive is to undermine the credibility of the Tea Party. It will not work.
The Tea Party is not easily demonized because there is no one face that represents it. The faces are diverse and when you see a picture of a Tea Party gathering it is not easy to portray it as radical. The faces are young, old, black, white, brown, male and female. They are the faces of a nation that is realizing its history once again and asking simply to return to the principles that have made us a great nation; faith in God and the individual. We rejected royalty once and we are doing it again. It is not terrorism it is patriotism.
The Tea Party has the best interest of our citizens at heart. They do not represent corporations or special interests. They want a limited government and a balanced budget. They simply want their freedom and God given rights back…
The founders of this nation were patriots that at the time were being defined in a similar fashion by the British establishment as Washington today is defining the Tea Party. It is amazing how history repeats itself when people fail to study their history. The Tea Party is simply asking the federal government to act within the constitution and live within the means we the people have set for them. There is no terrorism or radicalism in that philosophy. It is a simple request and it will be adhered to one way or the other. The government serves at the will of the people. The Tea Party represents the people.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
The Tea Party is simply returning to the principles we were founded on and if we as a nation want to change those principles the constitution provides a mechanism to do so through the amendment process. The people that are intent on defining the Tea Party as terrorists are truly the radical element and need to be ejected from the leadership of our country. They know they are about to be sent home in 2012 so they have decided the only way they can survive is to undermine the credibility of the Tea Party. It will not work.
The Tea Party is not easily demonized because there is no one face that represents it. The faces are diverse and when you see a picture of a Tea Party gathering it is not easy to portray it as radical. The faces are young, old, black, white, brown, male and female. They are the faces of a nation that is realizing its history once again and asking simply to return to the principles that have made us a great nation; faith in God and the individual. We rejected royalty once and we are doing it again. It is not terrorism it is patriotism.
The Tea Party has the best interest of our citizens at heart. They do not represent corporations or special interests. They want a limited government and a balanced budget. They simply want their freedom and God given rights back…
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