08.25.11

[I'm prompted to post this now, prior to Obama releasing his next economic plan, or outline, or framework, or post-it, or napkin. The sinking feeling that threats to private property will become more blatant is growing.]

The left's and Obama's redistribution mantra is getting louder. The sinister, oxymoronic, but brilliantly marketed phrase, "Social Justice," is insidiously pushing its way into the vernacular, even though it has nothing to do with justice.

The concept of private property is one of the key principles of our free nation. Ownership. Private Property Ownership cannot exist without freedom and freedom cannot exist without private property.

Yet, private property is under assault in this country from all directions. Whether from eminent domain abuse to illegal file sharing online, violations to private property rights and liberty are occurring at an alarming rate.

While many cities cite lowering rates of criminal theft, the kind involving broken windows, wider private property theft is happening unchecked. The federal government's refusal to enforce our nation's borders undermines, devalues, and endangers the value of private property in this country. If someone is enabled to disregard an international border, how much respect do you think they have for your picket fence? Not much.

A comment from an online article offers a reminder of how successful those who want to erase the borders between what's yours or mine are. I don't recall the article itself or the topic. It probably was about current events or politics. Paraphrasing, a commenter remarked that, "democracy means that there's no income disparity." Wrong, that's not what democracy means. That statement is an example of our failing schools and winning leftist propaganda. Democracy means citizens have a vote. It does not mean that everyone gets to share everything. A society that shares everything, ultimately, has nothing left to share. Sharing, in my opinion, is overrated.

In course of my political science studies a variety of political theories and writings where required reading. Karl Marx wrote of his theory of an evolution of society. A utopia where in the community everyone worked to their ability and took according to their need. I think Marx gets a bad wrap, because no society has ever evolved into this, save, I'm sure, a few communes here or there. Certainly, no country has. Rather, what is referred to as, communism has been forcibly imposed by military means. The results of this have generally meant the citizenry have nothing and suffer greatly while the authoritarian dictatorship has much, but I digress.

Freedom does not mean equal results. At times, it means having the freedom to fail. There is just one winner when running a race. The trend in youth sports where no score is kept, starts undermining private property concepts at an early age. This devalues ownership of team pride. It endangers the joy of winning. It's good to want to win and work toward that. Losing a game or race help's an athlete improve their performance. They adjust their form, rework training, and adjust nutrition because they want to win. These lessons apply to economics.

Be aware there are people, even in this country, who don't believe in private property, and more often, specifically your private property. Still, most agree that private property ownership is a wonderful thing. Private property takes many forms from intellectual property such as copyrights and patents, to personal property such as a televisions or computers, to real property - real estate, land, and buildings.

Real property is an interesting term, emphasis on real. When people owe more on their house than their house is worth, the term underwater has arisen. It could also be called undermined, or unreal property. Equity in a home, for example, is the real part of the real property. There is nothing real about a zero (0) down, 125%, interest only loan. This is another instance of the ongoing chipping away at private property ownership. This unreal property scenario mirrors the federal government's out of control spending and ballooning debt, which, like our porous borders, undermines, devalues, and endangers the value of private property in this country.

The American Dream is all about making it on your own and then buying that house with the picket fence if you like. Private property ownership is inextricably connected with pride, stability, and engagement. The country and all communities benefit from Pride of Ownership. Without private property, there is no pride of ownership. Own it, protect it.

[Tags]
Obama, budget, capitalism, federal deficit, debt ceiling, taxes, private property, communism, Marx]

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