ABSTRACT
Opponents of property rights use two sorts of argument: refutations of arguments given in support of property; and ‘positive’ arguments designed to show that property rights ought not to exist. The attempted refutations have been considered in the course of evaluating the arguments from first occupancy, labor, utility, and virtue. The ‘positive’ arguments against property rights, however, deserve separate attention. They may be divided into four general types: arguments to the effect that property rights have an overall social disutility; arguments to the effect that the institution of property rights is self-defeating; arguments to the effect that private ownership produces vicious character traits; and arguments to the effect that systems of property rights produce and perpetuate unjustifiable socio-economic inequality. Anti-property argument and perhaps the most potent one of all is one which has its source in a theme alluded to in both the social disutility and self-defeatingness arguments.
