Freedom Series - Episode 3: Self Ownership and Property Rights

In Episode 1 and Episode 2 I established a subjective ethical framework centered around free will and the freedom to exert your free will without coercion or force being used against you. From this subjective framework we can make objective judgements about the world and human actions. In this episode I will show how this framework impacts property rights.

I have, so far, established your free will and how it would be unethical for anyone else to exert their will over yours. What this boils down to is the principle of self-ownership. You own yourself. This may seems obvious to most people. However, the implications of such a statement may not be so obvious. These implications cut deep into the established status quo.

Property rights are established by either “just acquisition” or “just transfer” of property. I will attempt to define these terms. The adverb “just” is meant to show that all steps in process were ethical. This means we must apply the ethical framework we’ve previously established to these acts of “acquisition” and “transfer.” I will start with “transfer.” Say you own a thing and the way you’ve come to acquire it was ethical. You effectively have a title of ownership for this thing. If you wish to trade this title for another thing (money, another title to another thing, etc.) as long as there is no coercion or force being used by either party, you are free to trade as you see fit. This is fairly self-explanatory and is very similar to how we purchase or trade property today.

The “just acquisition” of property differs from the way it currently works but is no less simple than the above explanation of “just transfer.” Say there is a man. In our example, this man owns no things. The only thing he owns in this condition is, of course, himself. Say this man were to walk out into virgin land – land currently being used by no one. This man finds iron ore in the ground. He uses his hands to dig it out from the ground. He has mixed his labor (digging) with unowned resources (the ground and the ore). This man has used no coercion or force. Since the resources were not owned he has not committed theft. Since every step of the acquisition of the ore was ethical, his ownership of the ore is ethical and therefore is “just acquisition.” To further the story the man finds sticks and twigs on the ground and is able to build a fire. Using the fire he is able to convert this iron ore into an axe head. He uses a tree branch to finish the axe. With this axe he cuts down trees and builds a house. Everything that was previous unowned and has been mixed with the man’s labor is now a “just acquisition” – the ore, sticks, twigs, branch, axe, and house.

The way property becomes justly acquired is to mix labor with unowned resources. This means that any resources that have not been mixed with labor are not owned. This flies in the face of the government practice of hoarding vast amounts of virgin land and claiming to own it while doing nothing to improve or change the land. This also shows how property taxes are unethical. If you have purchased a single lot of land with the money you have earned by the capitalization of your labor (just transfer), you own that land and should not have to pay a third party for the right to use it. Either you own the land and government is unjustly invoicing you for rent you don’t owe or you never owned the land to begin with and the transfer of the land was not just and the government has scammed you.

In the next episode I will delve into the topic of taxes and how the income tax is not only theft on a massive scale but is inherently bad for the economy. If you like this sort of content make sure to upvote and follow me. Make sure to comment and let me what you liked or didn’t like, ask any questions you may have, or list some freedom based topics you’d like to see me touch on.