The Natural Law of Property is: "To the Producer belongs the fruits of his/her own labor." Below are listed the current theories of property that are permanently embodied in the laws of most nations. Will the government of the world amend these archaic laws so that justice can start its reign, at last, among all the nations?
Theories of Property:
a) The Communist Theory: "Everything belongs to the community or the state." According to this concept, the individual has no property rights at all, and whatever he is permitted to keep is granted to him by the state or collectivity. Some communities have from time to time practiced this concept but the system usually breaks down for lack of incentive to produce. The USSR (which is really state socialism rather than communism) has had to modify this theory for the same reason, and even to adopt the previously outlawed "profit motive". China has followed suit and might even overtake the USSR in economic reforms.
b) The Socialist Theory: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." This impractical idealism, though less extreme than communism, shares the same flaw. It does not take incentive into account, and it assumes a virtuous and perfect government.
c) The Power Theory: "Let him take who has the power, let him keep who can!" And it cannot be denied that while few attempted to justify this philosophy of naked brute force without some moderation, it has had, and still has very wide practice.
d) The Possession Theory: "Possession is nine-tenth of the law!" Rather than undertake the disturbing consequences of a strict and ethical questioning of who owns what, this theory offers and gives legitimacy of possession, the inertial comfort of letting things be, letting things stay as they are.
e) The Purchase Theory: "If I buy something, it is mine." This coincides and agrees with most people's feelings, and in most cases this is right. But one can purchase something that is not the rightful property of the seller, and it does not rightfully become the property of the buyer just because he bought it.
f) The Discovery Theory: "If I find something, it is mine." This theory has been widely held by nations in the colonial past, claiming discovery of continents for their kings and queens in utter disregard of the original inhabitants who were exploited, and systematically annihilated.
g) The Legal Theory: "If the law says it's mine, it is mine!" A wide spread view among sociologists is that ethics is relative and the social order decides what belongs to whom. But while the law is supposed to settle the question of possession fairly, it has often gone against morality. There is also a very strong tendency for legalism to impose and enforce the "letter of the law" rather than the "spirit of the law".
h) The Divine Theory: "Everything belongs to God." From time to time, theocratic states have sought to practice this theory; also monasteries and primitive Christian communities. But the practice of this theory still depends upon fallible human administration; and it is almost a universal tendency that religious zeal diminishes with time and organized special privileges takes over.
i) The Utilitarian Theory: "The greatest good for the greatest number!" Under this theory, a person's property rights are modified in accordance with what is regarded as the general good. The income tax and the welfare state are based on this theory. It shares the same weakness as the socialist theory of disregarding incentive to production, and assumes a virtuous and perfect government. It also promotes arbitrariness in deciding what is good and leads to temptations to evade payments and to seek extra benefits and privileges.
j) John Locke's Principle: "Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this nobody has a right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands, we may say are properly his. Whatever then be removed out of the state that nature hath provided and left it in, he hath mixed his labor with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature hath placed it in, it hath by this labor something annexed to it that excludes the common rights of other men. For this labor being the unquestionable property of the laborer, no man but he can have a right to what that is one's joined to, at least when there is enough and as good left in common for others."
With the exception of John Locke’s Principle, none of these theories can approach and stand before the justice of natural law. In the science of political economy, the natural law of property is also the general law of the distribution of wealth: "To the producer belongs the fruit of his own labor." Production therefore, is the only true basis of economic distribution and the only true grace which sanctifies the sacred right to property!
This natural economic law of distribution breaks asunder the prevailing concept of the so-called "Biblical Curse" of the human race and allows us to read with better insight and understanding, this truly beautiful verse in its true light:
Genesis III - 19: "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
