thenaturalinvestor on Nostr: “The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their ...
“The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.”
– Ayn Rand
Private property is the first and foremost requisite for understanding economics and allowing natural economic laws to function as they should.
Without private property, trade becomes impossible. Without trade, individuals cannot bid for the attainment of scarce goods they want. There is no way to analyze an economy or form a market without private property.
The Natural Investor’s aim is to improve their relationship with money and capital, to better understand how to invest and manage capital effectively.
To grasp the concepts of money, capital, and investments, we must begin with certain fundamental assumptions.
Traditionally, the government’s role is to defend the life, liberty, and property of individuals within its jurisdiction.
So how do we begin to understand private property? John Locke offers this insight:
“Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property.”
God has given us nature. When we combine our time, attention, and effort to mold nature into something useful for ourselves or others, this inherently becomes our property. If someone were to take or use it without permission, it would be theft, which is precisely what the government is meant to prevent.
From private property, you can build goods and capital. You may then choose to either consume these goods, use the capital to produce more, or sell them to others in exchange for goods or capital. When you decide to sell your private property, you initiate a market—as long as there is a buyer willing to exchange his goods or capital for what you're offering.
To produce value for others, we combine land, labor, and capital. Land and labor are God-given. The conservation of capital is essential to remaining productive. For example, when we invest in capital, such as a workbench for bending iron, we become more efficient and productive with our time. The more productive we are, the more valuable goods we can produce to trade for money.
We trade the goods we produce for money because it gives us optionality in the future to obtain different goods we need or capital that makes us more efficient at producing the goods or services we sell.
Over time, humans have identified certain goods that can be used in the future to obtain the widest range of other goods that we value. This good must be widely tradable and able to maintain its value over time. This is money. Money becomes the most widely bought and sold good in the market, ultimately serving as the standard by which everything else is valued.
Money, in its various forms, has taken on different shapes and sizes throughout history. It serves as the intermediary through which individuals accumulate capital and acquire the goods or services they need. The control of the money supply has proven to be one of the most effective ways to influence who gets to retain and acquire property. As we know, when private property rights are not respected, trade breaks down, markets fail to form, and society regresses to a more primitive state. When new money is created, the value of all existing money that is being saved and used decreases. If governments have the ability to print new money at little to no cost, they effectively have the power to confiscate the value of any money that you save.
This confiscation of private property is in direct contradiction to the fundamental role of government. The solution to this issue is to use a form of money whose creation and rules are beyond the control of any single human or entity.
– Ayn Rand
Private property is the first and foremost requisite for understanding economics and allowing natural economic laws to function as they should.
Without private property, trade becomes impossible. Without trade, individuals cannot bid for the attainment of scarce goods they want. There is no way to analyze an economy or form a market without private property.
The Natural Investor’s aim is to improve their relationship with money and capital, to better understand how to invest and manage capital effectively.
To grasp the concepts of money, capital, and investments, we must begin with certain fundamental assumptions.
Traditionally, the government’s role is to defend the life, liberty, and property of individuals within its jurisdiction.
So how do we begin to understand private property? John Locke offers this insight:
“Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property.”
God has given us nature. When we combine our time, attention, and effort to mold nature into something useful for ourselves or others, this inherently becomes our property. If someone were to take or use it without permission, it would be theft, which is precisely what the government is meant to prevent.
From private property, you can build goods and capital. You may then choose to either consume these goods, use the capital to produce more, or sell them to others in exchange for goods or capital. When you decide to sell your private property, you initiate a market—as long as there is a buyer willing to exchange his goods or capital for what you're offering.
To produce value for others, we combine land, labor, and capital. Land and labor are God-given. The conservation of capital is essential to remaining productive. For example, when we invest in capital, such as a workbench for bending iron, we become more efficient and productive with our time. The more productive we are, the more valuable goods we can produce to trade for money.
We trade the goods we produce for money because it gives us optionality in the future to obtain different goods we need or capital that makes us more efficient at producing the goods or services we sell.
Over time, humans have identified certain goods that can be used in the future to obtain the widest range of other goods that we value. This good must be widely tradable and able to maintain its value over time. This is money. Money becomes the most widely bought and sold good in the market, ultimately serving as the standard by which everything else is valued.
Money, in its various forms, has taken on different shapes and sizes throughout history. It serves as the intermediary through which individuals accumulate capital and acquire the goods or services they need. The control of the money supply has proven to be one of the most effective ways to influence who gets to retain and acquire property. As we know, when private property rights are not respected, trade breaks down, markets fail to form, and society regresses to a more primitive state. When new money is created, the value of all existing money that is being saved and used decreases. If governments have the ability to print new money at little to no cost, they effectively have the power to confiscate the value of any money that you save.
This confiscation of private property is in direct contradiction to the fundamental role of government. The solution to this issue is to use a form of money whose creation and rules are beyond the control of any single human or entity.