You can't have property without the social contract

Saturday, January 21, 2012

You can’t have property without the social contract

Society must observe and respect property for it to be valid, and thus a social contract is required for property.

If you disregard the concept of a social contract, you are disregarding property as well. There is no natural right to property (or anything). All rights are created by man and are justified via social contract or something similar.

Libertarians have no problem justifying property. They do seem to disregard every other aspect of the ‘social contract’ in the name of “individualism”. When they are provided property and the means of oppressing the proletariat, they are fine with the social contract. But when they are told they should at least try to pay for the health care of the working class, or fund science to improve society, it’s thievery.

That’s total bullshit.

I’ll leave you with a quote by Rousseau (who I don’t even like that much):

The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: “Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and The Discourses