“The individual has three rights, equally sacred from arbitrary interference [from government]: the right to his life, the right to his liberty, the right to his property. These three rights are so bound together as to be essentially one right. To give a man his life, but to deny him his liberty, is to take from him all that makes his life worth living. To give him his liberty, but to take from him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty, is to still leave him a slave.”
-Justice Sutherland
What is self ownership and what does it have to do with liberty and freedom?
With the election coming up, the nation is at a fever pitch, and there is much talk about liberty and freedom.
But do we really know what the means?
The measurement of liberty is bound to the idea of ownership of property, and we can not understand property ownership until we acknowledge that we own ourselves. Thus, we can not fully understand liberty until we fully understand self ownership.
Listen to Jon Torres of Logical Anarchy as he discusses private property and self ownership.
Additional Resources:
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property