"Property rights brought people to America because property ensured you could become someone. Secure property rights established a climate of competition that rewarded skill, talent, and risk taking."~Larry Schweikart
I believe secure property rights are also about accountability. When I know what belongs to me, I know what I am responsible for--and so does everyone else.
I know what I can risk, and I risk it because I know I reap the rewards when I succeed. And when I fail, I answer to myself.
This is the problem I see in the government owning (or running) something; Public land and services belong to everyone--and no one--all at once. We all pay for them, but whose accountable for them? Bureaucrats? But bureaucrats do not have an immediate personal interest in public properties, they have a bureaucratic interest in public properties. They spend money that belongs to no one imparticular, no one imparticular reaps the rewards and no one imparticular is accountable for the failure. Perhaps this is why no one seems to be able to track down where all the bail out/stimulus funds have gone.
Secure property rights are about more than ownership of material goods. They are about me owning my successes and my failures. It is about me owning me--and that is liberty.
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