Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
That's a fair point. But (except among radical libertarians), saying that private-property rights ought to be regulated and restricted to some degree by the government is different from claiming that private-property as a concept has no inherent positive value for human well-being. (The radicals claim that restricting private-property rights to ANY degree is tantamount to denying them -- thus the cliche "Taxation is theft".) On the other hand, it's a general assumption of libertarians (not just the radicals) that such rights as freedom of religion, speech, and the press can all be logically derived from and protected by an underlying respect for private property.
The problem we make in the West I think, is that we assume CAPITALISM is flawless, and we think of it as a political system. There is something wrong when a minority of about 400 people control 99% of the wealth. There is a problem when it takes thousands of Americans giving what little they can, to support a political candidate - and they still cannot match the petty change a dozen corporations can throw in to influence the race.

Property is supposed to be used, and people are supposed to be loved. But instead, people are used and property is loved.