Kinsella On Liberty
Kinsella On Liberty
Stephan Kinsella
KOL219 | Property: What It Is and Isn’t: Houston Property Rights Association
1 hour 29 minutes Posted Apr 28, 2017 at 5:01 pm.
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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 219.

I delivered a talk earlier today for the Houston Property Rights Association (April 28, 2017), “Property: What It Is and Isn’t,” which sets out the framework for how to view property rights in general and then finally turns to intellectual property. The main talk lasted for about the first 30 minutes; the final hour is Q&A. My speech notes (unedited and raw) are below.



Property: What It Is and Isn’t

 

Stephan Kinsella

Kinsella Law Group, Libertarian Papers, C4SIF.org

 

Houston Property Rights Association · April 28, 2017

 

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When a Great Austrian thinker was asked, “What is Best in Life?” He answered: “To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”

 

Okay, that was Arnold Scharzenegger as Conan.
This recognizes that conflict always possible in human life
There are only so many “things” to go around, and if multiple people want it, they can fight violently over it.
There can be conflict, precisely because we do not live in a world of superabundance.

Garden of Eden etc.
we live in a world where conflict is possible


Another way to put this: we live in a world of scarce resources

Better called “rivalrous”



 

Let’s turn to the ideas of another great Austrian thinker, Ludwig von Mises

Praxeology: the logic of human action
Structure of human action
Humans use knowledge about the world to select, control and employ scarce resources (means of action) to change the future—to achieve ends

Notice two crucial ingredients to successful human action: knowledge, and scarce resources/means.


This is true of Crusoe alone on his island
It is also true of man in society

 

In society there is another way to handle the problem of scarce resources

Instead of conflict, we can develop usage or ownership rules, to permit scarce resources to be used peacefully, productively, cooperatively, and without conflict
This is the origin and basis of “property”.
Alone, a man wants to use a thing: he uses it: he controls it, possesses it.
In society, there could be two people who want the same thing, but because it is scarce only one can use it.
Usage rules emerge that specify an owner of a given contestable resource.

We call this system “property rights”
We sometimes call the objects themselves “property”

That chair is my property


When you use a resource to change the world, in addition to your hands, your body, it becomes an extension of yourself.

It becomes identified with the user. “Part of” the user. We might say it is a feature, or characteristic, or an aspect, of the user—or a “property” of the user.
My gun, my knife, my fishing net, are how I control the world. I rely on them as I rely on my hands and my eyes.


Thus we refer to owned objects as “a property of” the owner.

we say he has a “proprietary interest in” the object, he is the proprietor, the owner. He has a property right in that resource.


Notice earlier: can say these resources are “characteristics” or “features” or properties of a person’s identity.

It would be odd to say “that chair is my characteristic” or “my feature”.
Yet we are used to saying “that chair is my property”
but what we mean is: a given person is the owner of that resource. A given person has a property right in that resource.