Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site steinmetz.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!edison!steinmetz!cooper
From: cooper@steinmetz.UUCP (Clark Cooper)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Private Property & Humans Prone to Evil
Message-ID: <172@steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 11:04:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: steinmet.172
Posted: Wed Jul 10 11:04:23 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 07:02:44 EDT
References: <756@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: GE CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 58


 In article <756@umcp-cs.UUCP> (Charley Wingate) writes:
> ....  Mike seems rather consistent in his assertion that
> the right to unrestricted liberty in the use of private property is supreme
> above all other rights. ...

I don't think Mike has said or implied this. If he has implied any
"supreme right", it is an individual's right to her/his own life and the
direction of it.

> ... I maintain that human beings are too prone to evil
> to be trusted with such a right. ...

If people don't have a right to their own property, then this means
that others may use it. They may even use the property in the same way
as the owner (though probably not for his benefit.)

If we accept your assertion that people are too prone to evil
to be trusted to own property, why should they be trusted to use it?

I anticipate some objections:
1) You were only talking about "unrestricted" property rights.
	If this was really what you meant, then I have no argument.
	"Unrestricted" could include my neighbor using his privately
	owned kitchen knife to stab me. However, from the tone of
	the rest of your article, I don't believe there would be
	much left in the way of a property *right* after you had
	imposed what you saw as necessary restrictions.

2) It is not ownership per se that this evil tendency makes
   dangerous, but concentration of resources in a few hands. (It is 
   safer that 1000 imps have 1000 shekels than that one devil
   has a million.)
  	When there are no property rights, resources are controlled
	by those who run the {tribe, gang, party, nation}. The
	Rockefellers were penny-ante in their control of resources
	compared to Stalin, Hitler, and many medieval kings.

3) Ownership intensifies this evil tendency; it brings out the worst.
	Is stealing evil? It is an action that rejects the right of
	property.
	Is fraud evil? Fraud is stealing by means of deception.
	Is slavery evil? A slave owns not even his life.

> ...  I suggest that it is no
> wonder that Mike's views are not held by working people, but by professors,
> bankers, and businessmen.
> 
> Charley Wingate  umcp-cs!mangoe

My grandfather was a coal miner, my father was a school teacher, and
I'm a computer programmer. Do I qualify as a working person?
Anyway I'm neither a professor, banker, or businessman and I hold
views similar to Mike's.

-- 
Clark Cooper |UUCP: decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!edison!steinmetz!cooper
             |ARPA: coopercc@ge-crd