Ariadne's Thread on Property
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  John Speaking

SpeakerI think Catholic thought on property and society is interesting -- even though I'm not a Catholic like you.

There is a tradition that runs at least from Aquinas to the modern popes that says some things I agree with -- First, that the earth and its resources are here for the good of all. Second, that the poor always have a right to necessities. Remember that for Aquinas a starving person who 'steals' bread from a baker does not do wrong. He tells us that "In cases of need, all things are common property, so that there would seem to be no sin in taking another's property, for need has made it common." He also says that while people have the power to "procure and dispense" goods, it is different with regard to their "use." "In this respect 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."

Locke is a bit like Aquinas in this regard. For Locke, God created the earth for the good of humankind. Everyone has a use right to the resources of the earth, and that use right does not disappear even after government has been established and even if strong property rights have been instituted. Pushed to the extreme, the poor always have their use right -- which amounts (at a minimum) to a right to subsistence.

I don't assume that there is a God who created the earth and determined that people have certain rights. I would like to modify the Catholic view in some ways. For openers, I want a secular foundation that doesn't rely on the will of God. I think I offered that in my criticism of Dee's view. Basically I said that if natural resources are simply there for the taking it leads to results that are morally unacceptable. First, it eventually eliminates the use rights of non-owners. Second, it implies that a few people could take over all the most valuable resources and reduce the others to complete dependence, forcing them to do whatever they want. I conclude that if one group takes possession of all the valuable resources, they owe compensation to those who thereby have no access to those resources. That obligation to compensate can be viewed as an obligation to the common good.

So my view is a little bit like the Catholic view, but it is secular rather than theistic.



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