In order for free market economics to work, there has to be private ownership. Without that, you end up with some kind of Institution-controlled system, either Corporatism or Socialism.
The problem with both forms of economic systems is that eventually, people figure out that they have no power because they own no property. When you own property of some kind, you have a stake in where you live, in your community, and in the future of your children.
In the free market, you are a king of your little domain. And barring any serious infractions of other people’s property or lives, you should be sovereign on your land.
The anarcho-capitalists and the libertines have this concept all wrong. They believe that the individual is sovereign. But sovereignty doesn’t come from you the person, but from the land you lay claim to.
Now I have to ask you, do you believe that we are sovereign individuals in the United States?
If you answered yes, then ask yourself, do you actually own the house you’re paying a mortgage on? What happens when you stop paying that mortgage? How about if you refuse to pay property taxes? What happens then?
The truth is, you do not own your home, you are merely renting from the banks and your local government. God forbid you have money in your bank account if your mortgage comes from the same bank and you get behind on your payments.
This is because every cent in the bank does not belong to you either. You loaned the bank your money on their terms.
Don’t like those terms? Well, there’s always the check cashing place next to the seedy restaurant and the payday lending shop. And of course, they’ll confiscate a certain fee for the trouble of trying to convert a piece of bank paper into several pieces of Federal Reserve paper.
You labor, your home, your car, your stuff, and your money is all owned by someone else. Before you get paid, the government takes its “fair share” to fund their gluttonous spending programs, usually to pay some ungrateful, unskilled worker to live here illegally and not do a damn thing.
Ownership in modern America has been subverted and stolen from the owners and the sad fact is that nobody seems to understand this basic concept.
Not even the CEOs in corporate America own the companies they run. Nor do the shareholders. Don’t believe me? Consider what happens when a company is caught breaking the law. Do the C-level executives get arrested and sentenced for said crime? What about the shareholders?
No, usually they get fined by the government and a finger waved in front of them to not do that again.
I am a firm believer in individual ownership. That means when you have land, it’s yours. No one can take it from it. It also means that property must be claimed by a living, breathing person, not an entity.
Unfortunately, the idea of capitalism has been so skewed by the elites that the dumb masses think that debt is ownership, taxes are patriotic, and that the United States is a free market country.