A Quick Thought on Property and Natural Law

The concept of Natural Law (found in Hebrew-Christian thinking, Greek philosophy, Aquinas, Hobbes, and Smith among many others) argues that there are manifest, inalienable rights inherent to reality that can be comprehended by human reason and are universal to all mankind. One of these natural rights is that of private/personal property. This can be understood by the existence of the individual. The individual is fundamentally a personal/private property unto him or herself. ...The concept of private property begins with the acknowledgement of the existence of the individual. From this come ideas of the right to life, the right to privacy, the right of self-preservation, abolition of slavery, freedom of association, and freedom of religion among others.

Marxist thought (drawing from Rousseau, Hobbes and Hegel) - in an attempt to undermine the philosophical structure that undergirds capitalist thought - rejects the concept of private property down to its most fundamental level, arguing that property and rights come from the state and administered by government. This rejection is the philosophical basis for why in so many socialist countries (Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, North Korea, Cuba, etc.) there are severe human rights violations, abolition of private property, forced labor, collectivism, no freedom of association, and political executions. If there is no natural right to private/personal property, then the state grants to individuals rights and property. Under socialism, you don’t own yourself; the collective state owns you. And if the state is administered by the government, then government can effectively and legally deprive you of life, liberty, and property in the name of the interests of the collective state. For the individual to claim for himself or herself life, liberty, and property apart from the state would be considered, at the very least, stealing. This is why many socialists proclaim “Property is Theft.”

Therefore, when the government seeks to cut taxes for the populace, and particular individuals complain that cutting taxes is “giving it to the wealthy” and “stealing from the national treasury”, now you’ll understand the philosophical underpinning that guides such statements.