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I want to offer a criticism here. The most common justification for private property is that it secures to the laborer the product of his labor. That has a common sense feeling of moral rectitude to it. I agree with it myself as long as we don't carry it too far.

There have been times when a lot of people owned small farms or small shops. In that context, the argument seemed plausible. I think all of us would agree with it.

The problem is that we don't live in those times any more. For a long time now the vast majority of people in the United States own neither farms nor shops. They work for someone else. Property now is BIG property, and those who own and profit from it may do very little work. The old justification has been turned on its head. The people who do the work earn the least and the people who profit the most do the least work.

In the new context, we have to ask if the old justification still works. Does it?