Thursday, May 26, 2011

Property is Theft

This phrase comes from the French anarchist Proudhon, La propriété, c'est le vol! and was very popular in the 1960s.  it refers specifically to state property, and it is quite true.  In the measure the stte owns property, is the measure the markets are distorted.  But as an anarchist, I believe in private property, personal property defined as what you own by trade and mixing your labor with real estate (and limited to that, everything else is homesteadable.)

There is no "intellectual property rights" without government.  With a mere turn of phrase, an astonishing thing happens: ideas turn into property, and a right to steal from everyone else is formed.  The "rights" in intellectual "property" is a means for theft.  Now, how is that said in Feench?


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