8 years ago: Private property (cont’d.)

June 7, 2005, on this blog: Private property (cont’d.)

One problem with our neverending discussion (and part of the reason that it seems to be neverending) is that it presumes a binary situation in which private property rights can be limited only by the state and the state can be limited only by private property rights. That presumption leads to the idea that one or the other must, therefore, be regarded as absolute and unlimited. The question at the heart of this discussion seems to be, “Which is absolute? The power of the state? Or the right to private property?” The wrong questions will always produce the wrong answers.

One does not have to be a Hebrew prophet, or a believer in the God of Elijah, to answer “Neither.”