A short time ago we posted a short piece explaining why,
because private property is a natural right, socialism has the wrong bull by
the horns, or sow by the ear, or however you want to put it. Naturally, the socialists didn’t take this
lying down. Almost immediately we
received a rather sanctimonious comment to the effect that the idea that
private property being a natural right was an invention of Thomas Aquinas during
the Middle Ages.
 |
| Private property in early societies. |
Our Critic was able to cite a modern source for this
interpretation. Unfortunately, had Our
Critic done his or her homework, he and/or she would have realized that the
idea of private property as a natural right predates the Middle Ages by a few
thousand years, dating from the dawn of society itself.
How do we know this?
First, common sense. The natural
law is defined as “A
body of principles that are considered to be inherent in nature and have
universal application in determining whether human conduct is right or wrong, often
contrasted with positive law.” Put more
simply, the natural law is the general code of human behavior that people have
accepted in all times and places. Even tribal societies had strict laws regarding theft, as can be seen in Llewellyn and Hoebel, The Cheyenne Way: Conflict and Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence (1941), e.g., Chapter 8 on "Property and Inheritance."
So, how do we know that private property is part of the
natural law? Because from time immemorial
theft has been considered wrong. Even
those who would abolish private property admit that theft is wrong. Karl Marx built his entire economic theory on
the legitimacy of private property . . . and then contradicted himself — as did Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who declared that "Property is theft," i.e., "Property is a violation of property." (!?!?!?!?!?)
 |
| Marx: Capitalists steal what doesn't belong to workers. |
And how did Marx contradict himself? By declaring
that capitalists only get rich by committing theft, that is, by stealing surplus value
from workers and consumers.
Marx never responded to the question that if workers and
consumers don’t own that surplus value as private property, how is it possible
that stealing it could be wrong — or even considered stealing? Taking
something from someone to whom it doesn’t belong in the first place isn’t
wrong. Only taking something from
someone who owns it is wrong.
Thus, the universal prohibition against theft disproves the
belief that the concept of private property belonging to the natural law is a
recent invention. People may dispute
what constitutes theft, but no one disagrees that theft is wrong. As the solidarist political scientist
Heinrich Rommen explained,
 |
| Law Code of Hammurabi: "Theft is Bad." |
[I]t follows from the fact of natura vulnerata [‘wounded nature,” i.e., human nature darkened by the hereditary
stain of Original Sin] as well as from the ethical character and goal of
community life, and of the State in particular, that positive
human laws are absolutely necessary for determining the further inferences from
the first principles in the interest of a more exact and readily discernible
establishment of order and for the setting up of institutions needed for community
life. The natural law prohibition of adultery
implies at the same time an affirmation of marriage and of the general norms
that are most needed for its functioning as an institution. “Thou shalt not steal” presupposes the
institution of private property as pertaining to
the natural law; but not, for example, the
feudal property arrangements of the Middle Ages or the modern capitalist system. Since the natural law lays down general norms
only, it is the function of the positive law to undertake the concrete,
detailed regulation of real and personal property and to prescribe the
formalities for conveyance of ownership. (Heinrich Rommen, The Natural Law. Indianapolis, Indiana: Liberty Fund, Inc.,
1998, 59.)
Unless, then, Our Critic maintains that, e.g., the Ten Commandments or the Law
Code of Hammurabi are somehow inventions of the Middle Ages, private property
is, was, and always will be part of the natural law.
#30#
