- The values that we want and need in order to live are not laying around for us to pick up. Every value that sustains human life—from food to flat screen televisions, from clothing to cars—must be produced. Life requires the production of values.
- Without the freedom to produce and trade the values that life requires, we cannot sustain our lives. This is true during “normal” times as well as during pandemics.
- The lockdown prohibited those in “non-essential” jobs from working. They were denied a livelihood. They were denied the freedom to support themselves and their families.
- The lockdown demonstrated the importance of production in stark terms. Deprived of the freedom to produce and trade, tens of millions were forced to consume their savings, depend on government assistance, or both.
- The right to property means the freedom to create, use, keep, trade, and dispose of material values. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Property rights protect our freedom to produce the values that we want and need.
- Property is life. To deprive an individual of his property is to deprive him of the means to sustain his life.
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