Private Property

The program of liberalism, therefore, if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property, that is, private ownership of the means of production. . . . All the other demands of liberalism result from this fundamental demand.

Liberalism, p. 19

The essential teaching of liberalism is that social cooperation and the division of labor can be achieved only in a system of private ownership of the means of production, i.e., within a market society, or capitalism. All the other principles of liberalism—democracy, personal freedom of the individual, freedom of speech and of the press, religious tolerance, peace among the nations—are consequences of this basic postulate. They can be realized only within a society based on private property.

Omnipotent Government, p. 48

Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will. It allows other forces to arise side by side with and in opposition to political power. It thus becomes the basis of all those activities that are free from violent interference on the part of the state. It is the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the autonomy of the individual and ultimately all intellectual and material progress are rooted.

Liberalism, pp. 67–68

If history could prove and teach us anything, it would be that private ownership of the means of production is a necessary requisite of civilization and material well-being. . . . Only nations committed to the principle of private property have risen above penury and produced science, art and literature.

Planned Chaos, p. 81

It belongs to the very essence of a society based on private ownership of the means of production that every man may work and dispose of his earnings where he thinks best.

Liberalism, p. 137

Under capitalism, private property is the consummation of the self-determination of the consumers.

Human Action, p. 680; p. 683

Social cooperation, however, can be based only on the foundation of private ownership of the means of production.

Epistemological Problems of Economics, p. 39

The continued existence of society depends upon private property, and since men have need of society, they must hold fast to the institution of private property to avoid injuring their own interests as well as the interests of everyone else. For society can continue to exist only on the foundation of private property. Whoever champions the latter champions by the same token the preservation of the social bond that unites mankind, the preservation of culture and civilization. He is an apologist and defender of society, culture, and civilization, and because he desires them as ends, he must also desire and defend the one means that leads to them, namely, private property.

Liberalism, p. 87

Governments tolerate private property when they are compelled to do so, but they do not acknowledge it voluntarily in recognition of its necessity.

Liberalism, p. 68

The “have’s” do not have any more reason to support the institution of private ownership of the means of production than do the “have-not’s.”

Liberalism, p. 186

The truth is that every infringement of property rights and every restriction of free enterprise impairs the productivity of labor.

The Theory of Money and Credit, p. 484