The economic shut down has exposed a fundamental truth that few are willing to acknowledge: Without property rights, flourishing is impossible. This is true of individuals, and it is true of societies.
The right to property means the freedom to create, use, keep, trade, and dispose of material values. This is precisely what the shut down prohibited. Businesses were forced to close and to stop creating and trading values. Individuals were prohibited from working or going to most stores. As employees they could not create values. As consumers they could not trade for the values they desired.
The results of this massive assault on property rights will be felt for decades. Nearly two months of production has been lost, and that lost production will never be recovered. It is gone forever. And so are many of the businesses that were forced to close. They will never reopen, and if they do, many won’t survive long because of the financial hardships of lost production.
Because businesses were forced to close, tens of millions have lost their jobs. Many are depleting their savings or dipping into retirement accounts merely to survive.
Two months ago the economy was strong. Today, the job growth of twelve years has been destroyed.
All of this is because property rights–the freedom to create and trade material values–was violated on an unprecedented scale. The suffering that we are enduring, and will continue to endure, is the effect. Violating property rights is the cause. Without property rights, flourishing is impossible.