Few people care about property rights until it is their property that is threatened. For example, when the federal government began using eminent domain to seize property in south Texas, property owners objected. They correctly claimed that their property rights were being violated. However, they said nothing about rural Texans being threatened at the same time with eminent domain to build a high-speed railroad between Houston and Dallas. And those rural Texans said nothing about the threats in south Texas. In these instances, and countless others, property owners were concerned solely with the threat to their property. They ignored threats to other property owners.
It is certainly understandable that individuals object to threats to their property. What they don’t realize is they should also object to threats to the property of others. If they don’t, they are implicitly endorsing the premise that it is acceptable to violate property rights at times. The only issue up for debate is whose property and for what purpose.
In practice, this means that when the “other guy’s” property is taken, it is acceptable. However, sooner or later they are the “other guy.” To southern Texans, rural property owners were the other guys. To rural Texas, southern property owners were the other guys.
This attitude leads to a very disintegrated “defense” of property rights. I put defense in quotes because a true defense of property rights requires a principled approach. To truly defend property rights, one must object to every violation of the right to property. I don’t mean this literally, because objecting to every property rights violation would be a full-time career. I mean objecting to every property rights violation on principle and never succumbing to the premise that sometimes property rights must be violated.
My emails and blog serve as an example. I cover a wide range of property rights issues, but I certainly can’t address every single one. I choose issues/examples based on what I think will have the broadest application, as well as those that I find particularly interesting. But no matter the issue, I have never even hinted that it is acceptable to violate property rights for any reason. And I won’t.
Further, with very few exceptions, the property that I write about isn’t my own. But I know that if the other guy’s right to property can be violated, then mine can too. Few people care about property rights, but everyone should.