What We Own

By Jerry Pournelle

July 28, 2003

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Column 276 (Continued from the Previous Week)

Property and Copyright

The right to property was pretty well embedded in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Committee on Style changed John Locke's basic rights of "Life, Liberty, and Property" to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," in part to make it clear that even those who had no property had rights including the right to acquire property. Americans thus grow up with the notion of property rights, and we think we know what property is.

In fact, though, there's no universal agreement on just what property is. Proudhon said "Property is theft!" At the other end of the spectrum we have libertarians who believe that property rights are absolute, and can neither be given nor taken away by governments. It would probably startle them to discover that Proudhon was a founder of both the libertarian and anarchist movements, but that's a story for another time. My point is that as a practical matter, property is whatever the government allows you to keep. Property is what the police and courts say is yours, and property rights are those enforceable in courts: Property is what the law entitles you to and will award you if someone takes it away.

Those who dispute that definition are in good company, but they don't agree on much. Some object to inheritance taxes, some to progressive income taxes, some to any form of income tax, and some to any kind of involuntary tax at all; and of courses taxes and property are intimately related. The power to tax is the power to confiscate.

All that is a matter of theory. In practice, property is what you can keep, and while you may continue to "own" a hijacked car that has been dismantled and sold piecemeal, the ownership does you precious little good.

Intellectual Property

But so far we have been talking about physical property, stuff that can by nature have only one owner. If you take my car, I can no longer use it.

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