Lew Rockwell and Jesus on property rights

Jesus on Property Rights and Resource Preservation
by Robert Higgsby Robert Higgs

Perhaps the most important proposition in the economics of property rights is that people will not care for a resource they do not own as well as they will care for a resource they do own. It is amazing how much fashionable economic belief – for example, nearly everything ever advanced in support of socialism, as well as the bulk of what passes for environmentalist policy proposals – fails to take adequate account of this virtually axiomatic proposition.

But don’t take my word for it – or even the word of any of my illustrious former colleagues at the University of Washington. Take the word of Jesus of Nazareth.

In the tenth chapter of the Gospel According to John, Jesus is trying to make a point, but his listeners are not getting it, so he finally gives them a parable he can be sure they will understand.....