Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

Private-Property Rights, Erroneous Interpretations, Morality, and Economics: Reply to Demsetz

The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
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Volume 3, No. 1 (Spring 2000)

 

As I see matters, private-property rights are of crucial importance to civilization.  They are what distinguishes us from the barbarians.  To the extent we give in to the enemies of property rights, we reduce ourselves.  Yet private property rights have always been under furious attack, and continue to be so.  Even though the threat of actual communism seems to have receded, at least for they moment, our universities, newsrooms, and pulpits are still riddled with Marxists.  And this is to say nothing of the feminists, the black "studies" professors, the multi culturalists, the postmodernists, and other knots on the tree of knowledge. These movements are all virulent opponents of private-property rights.  but at least they have the decency to come to do intellectual batter while flying the colors of central planning, socialism, economic regulation, government power and dirigisme.

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