Jun 29, 2005

Great Will Wilkinson Piece

by Liberty and Power

My friend Will Wilkinson has an excellent piece about charges of"Social Darwinism" against policies designed to increase ownership at The American Spectator. One highlight, referring to a recent talk by Barack Obama:

Modern market societies -- ownership societies -- are the paradigm of interdependent, mutually advantageous cooperation, and are as far as can be imagined from the society of atomistic predators Obama invokes to stir the disdain of the fresh-faced graduates of Knox. Market societies -- ownership societies -- are wealthy because they rely on and reinforce a high level of social trust and norms of cooperation.

Along the lines of using Kelo as a way to talk to the left about the importance of property rights, emphasizing the cooperative nature of markets is another possible strategy.

More Comments:

Mark Brady - 6/29/2005

Well, it's certainly more clearly written than many of the obtuse remarks that he posts to his website.

"This is what leads Obama and Barber to so easily confuse ownership with anarchy, autonomy with chaos."

Will Wilkinson writes for himself, not for anyone else, but I always find it unfortunate when writers equate anarchy with chaos. I appreciate that this is one meaning of the word but every time someone does that, it makes it that little bit more difficult for those of us who take spontaneous order, including spontaneous legal order, seriously enough to advocate private property anarchy.