Most Americans today tend to think of private property simply as a home – the place where the family resides, store their belongings, and find shelter and safety from the elements. It’s where you live. It’s yours because you pay the mortgage and the taxes. Most people don’t give property ownership much more thought than that. 

          But there was a time when property ownership was considered to be much more. Property, and the ability to own and control it, was life itself.

The great economist John Locke, whose writings and ideas had a major influence on our nation’s founders, believed that “life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.”

          John Locke advocated that if property rights did not exist, then the incentive to develop and improve property would be destroyed;

Private property ownership, Locke argued, brought stability and wealth to individuals, leading to a prosperous society of man.

          From the very beginning, the United States was guided by the idea of private property ownership. It was written into our governing documents. Property and freedom – one cannot live without the other.

          John Adams argued, “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”   

          In today’s America, private property is quickly being destroyed across the nation, and note the growing lawlessness. The fear of climate change has become the excuse for government to dictate how every strip of land will be used.

          Have you ever wondered why these green forces focus so hard on the environment?

That’s because the environment does not recognize political boundaries. The environment crosses rivers, fields, and mountains, all of which cross over national borders, state borders, county borders, city borders, and the boundary lines of your yard!

          That fact has given massive new power to those forces that seek to change our way of life and system of government.

If you are determined to protect private property rights, then you need to start with a good definition of what private property is. Too many people think it just means a place where you pay to store your stuff.

          Here is a definition that was written by a Washington State Supreme Court Justice – Richard B. Sanders:

          “Property in a thing consists not merely of its ownership and possession, but in the unrestricted right of use, enjoyment, and disposal. Anything which destroys any of the elements of property to that extent, destroys the property itself. The substantial value of property lies in its use. If the right of use be denied, the value of the property is annihilated, and ownership is rendered a barren right.”

We keep trying to defend liberty. Today, we need to take the offense. I think we can do that by taking that definition of private property as our banner and start demanding our rights.

Tom DeWeese,
President
American Policy Center
https://americanpolicy.org/

Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence. Today he serves as Founder and President of the American Policy Center.

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