Abstract
Every once in a while a book comes along which bodes well to explain, expound upon, and, most importantly, defend and justify that much maligned institution—private property rights—but which turns out, in the end, to be a disappointment. Two years ago it was Bethell’s The Noblest Triumph that took on this role. This time around it would appear to be the turn of Pipes’s Property and Freedom that fails to meet our hopes and expectations.
The author wishes to thank Ilana Mercer for editorial assistance.
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Notes
- 1.
Bethell, Tom, The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. For a critique see Block, Walter, “Review Essay of Bethell, Tom, The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998,” in The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Vol. 2, No. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 65–84. Pipes (p. 286) is a supporter of the Bethell book, stating that the latter has “convincingly presented … the close relationship between property and prosperity.”
- 2.
Pipes, Richard, Property and Freedom: The story of how through the centuries private ownership has promoted liberty and the rule of law, New York: Knopf, 2000.
- 3.
Hayek, Friedrich A., The Road To Serfdom, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1944.
- 4.
Olasky, Marvin, The Tragedy of American Compassion, Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1992; Hughes, Mark D., “Middle Class Windfalls and the Poverty of the Welfare State,” The Philanthropist, (Winter 1991); Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 3–24; Hughes, Mark D., “Counterpoint: A Response to Bennett and DiLorenzo’s Unfair Competition Thesis,” The Philanthropist, (Fall 1990); Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 43–56. Beito, David T., From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
- 5.
See on this “Hayek’s Road to Serfdom,” Journal of Libertarian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, Fall 1996, pp. 327–350.
- 6.
I couldn’t help mixing my metaphors. Please excuse me. At least this is not a violation of property rights.
- 7.
For a devastating critique, see Murray, Charles, Losing Ground: American Social Policy from 1950 to 1980, New York: Basic Books, 1984.
- 8.
Pipes cannot plead ignorance of the distinction between the legitimate “negative” rights not to be molested or victimized by theft, on the one hand, and the so called “positive” rights to food, clothing, and shelter at other people’s expense, as he discusses these, correctly, on pp. 245–247. (For more on this see Rothbard, Murray N., “Isaiah Berlin on Negative Freedom,” in The Ethics of Liberty, New York: New York University Press, 1998.) Pipes understands this, full well, in “theory,” but is unable or unwilling to apply these insights to the welfare state.
- 9.
For another statement along these lines see Holcombe, Randall G., The Economic Foundations of Government, New York: New York University Press, 1994. For a rebuttal, see Block, Walter, “National Defense and the Theory of Externalities, Public Goods and Clubs,” Hoppe, Hans-Hermann, ed., Explorations in the Theory and History of Security Production, forthcoming.
- 10.
Under voluntary sado-masochism, people assent to being whipped. Should such a person be allowed to accuse the sadist of assault and battery? No more than should one boxer be allowed to sue another for punching him. When you enter the boxing ring, you agree to being hit (above the belt). Under Pipes’s dispensation, there could be no such contracts, a violation of liberty if ever there was one.
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Block, W.E. (2019). Pipes on Property and Freedom. In: Property Rights. Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28353-7_6
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