ABSTRACT
For life itself, property and government are inessential and separable, but from the standpoint of maximizing social welfare, they are essential and inseparable. While government is not a necessary ingredient in property creation, the lineage of government goes back to the desire to allocate and defend property. Traditionally, conservatives have asked government to protect existing, often inherited property rights so as to preserve the hierarchical order of society. Liberal capitalists favor competitive individualism and the natural right for middle-class workers to own property as a reward for labor. Socialists want a cooperative society based on the collective ownership of property. And in their Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels suggest that with collective ownership, a government with the primary function of protecting property rights would be unnecessary. Today’s governments reflect a sometimes healthy conflict between these influences.
