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I just want to register my own protest here against what Dee is saying.

There is a long standing Christian tradition dealing with property, beginning with some of the Fathers of the church and extending through the great medieval philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas. Some of the Fathers believed that God had given the earth to mankind in common. Private property was a human creation designed to deal with the imperfections of human nature -- mainly greed. Aquinas also held that god gave the earth to mankind in common.

Aquinas distinguished between the right to acquire property and the right to use it as one pleased. He supported the former on practical grounds but denied the latter. For him, those who owned property owned it at least in part for the sake of the common good. Those who did not own property had a right to some of the surplus owned by others. As he put it, "man ought to possess external things, not as his own, but as common, so that, to wit, he is ready to communicate them to others in their need." (ST, II-II, Question 66, second article)

From this point of view, not only are owners limited in what they can do with their property, but they must use their property to supply the needs of others as a matter of justice, not simply as a matter of charity.

My point is that the modern classic liberal and libertarian traditions represent a break from the older Christian tradition. I like to call it the liberal heresy.