PoCG # 5: Posession Indicates Property

Returning to our discussions on the Principles of Civil Government, after a brief digression on Time, let us not wade too deep in the philosophical issue of Property. Let us, instead, assert the fact that there is a Natural Order in all our bazaars only because every member of Civil Society trading there follows a golden rule:

Possession Indicates Property.

That is, we are not looking towards our Civil Government for Law. No siree!

We have our own Law.

We are all “rule-following animals.”

And that is why there is a Natural Order in our bazaars. No city market depends on government policemen to “maintain order.”

THIS IS OUR STRENGTH.

Therefore, the only task of the Civil Government is to uphold the natural law already present in society – a Law that comes from the past. This Law says that Possession Indicates Property. That is, Private Property.

Thus, the fruits, vegetables or fish arrayed before a vendor belong to him. If we agree to a bargain, I hand him some money, which becomes his Property and he hands me my purchase, which becomes my Property. This Law is recognized by all. There are no disputes, Without police or courts and lawyers, billions worth of goods are peacefully exchanged in bazaars throughout India because we all follow this Law.

Note that if the government took the opposite course, under the influence of socialists and communists, and declared all property to be common property, the Natural Order would instantly collapse. Barbarism would ensue as every “comrade” descended upon every shop and took away whatever he desired in the name of the new “brotherhood.” Collective property is a dangerous hoax.

This implies that we have instituted a Civil Government amongst ourselves so that we can enjoy property ownership with legal security. We have certainly not instituted the government so that The State owns everything and we own nothing. So Laputa-On-High has got their fundas totally wrong. They probably smoke some bad stuff up there.

Going further, this also implies that we have not instituted a Civil Government in order to deprive some sections of their properties and bestow the same to some other section – which is the hallmark of socialist politics. No! Rather, every Individual has a legal claim on what he owns. He contributes to the running of the government by “sacrificing a small portion of his Property so as to enjoy better protection of the rest” – as Thomas Paine put it. Redistributionism goes against this basic Principle of Civil Government. As do reservations.

We can now pause to look at the Congress and the BJP in the light of the above Principle: Their cheap rice and wheat schemes are based on looting A to give to B. This, while the personnel of Their The State, raking in taxes and spending the same recklessly, will gain hugely anyway. All subsidies, all redistribution, should cease.

Also note that neither political party is actually socialist, with a heart that bleeds for the poor, for they are both inflators of the money supply – which redistributes wealth away from the poor. Inflation is a huge tax on the poor. Sound money, on the other hand, is based on the Principle of Property.

Thus, Advani’s desire to seize all the assets of rich Indians abroad and spending the same on the poor is more of the same socialist nonsense. As my friend Ashok V Desai has written, these are “avaricious dreams.” This is Advani's "mythical trillion." He also adds that the figures are all wrong and there is nothing in law that allows our The State to confiscate money held abroad. It is just a diversion – the politics of nonsense.

So Think!

There is much to think about.