It is a contradiction. It is illogical and irrational.

Yet, what does it really mean to own something? In the purest sense, ownership means the full use of and right to something, including the right to sell it to someone else, destroy it, or whatever else suits your desires. When you rent an apartment, or lease a car, you don’t own that property. Someone else does, and you are simply renting it. You can’t take that car or apartment and sell it to someone else, because it’s not yours. You can’t gut the whole apartment and remodel it (unless you’ve first gotten permission). You can’t drive the car off a cliff for your amusement (without facing repercussions). The difference between renting and ownership is also not difficult for Americans to understand.

Yet, despite such seemingly concrete concepts, the lines are blurred at times… specifically: what does it mean to own a home? Ashley and I just paid our first of four property tax installments to the county. Even though we supposedly own our condo, we must pay tax in order to keep that property. If we don’t pay the tax, the state can come and take over what we “own.”

This begs the question — if we must continually pay the state in order to possess our property, do we truly own it? How is this setup any different from a renter who must pay his landlord for the rental of an apartment?

But some will say, “You are receiving services for those taxes. How else do you propose the state pay for schools or firemen or police officers if not through property taxes?” Of course, this kind of question only supports my argument, which is that we are all serfs, and the state is our landowning feudal lord.

We look down on the sad history of Europe in the Middle Ages, but is ownership really much different now? Serfdom may have a different name and a new facade, but as long as we must pay tribute to our lord, we are merely just slaves of the state.

“It’s a moral imperative, universally conceded in our day and age, that every man is entitled to a job.” His voice rose: “I’m entitled to it!”

“You are? Go on, then, collect your claim.”

“Uh?”

“Collect your job. Pick it off the bush where you think it grows.”

“I mean–”

“You meant that it doesn’t? You meant that you need it, but can’t create it? You mean that you’re entitled to a job which I must create for you?”

“Yes!”

“And if I don’t?”

From Atlas Shrugged.

“… There is no way to disarm any man,” said Dr. Ferris, “except through guilt. Through that which he himself has accepted as guilt. If a man has ever stolen a dime, you can impose on him the punishment intended for a bank robber and he will take it. He’ll bear any form of misery, he’ll feel that he deserves no better. If there’s not enough guilt in the world, we must create it. If we teach a man that it’s evil to look at spring flowers and he believes us and then does it — we’ll be able to do whatever we please with him. He won’t defend himself. He won’t feel he’s worth it. He won’t fight. But save us from the man who lives up to his own standards. Save us from the man of clean conscience. He’s the man who’ll beat us.”

From Atlas Shrugged.

From its inception, in 1892, the Pledge has been a slavish ritual of devotion to the state, wholly inappropriate for a free people. It was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist pushed out of his post as a Baptist minister for delivering pulpit-pounding sermons on such topics as “Jesus the Socialist.” Bellamy was devoted to the ideas of his more-famous cousin Edward Bellamy, author of the 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward. Looking Backward describes the future United States as a regimented worker’s paradise where everyone has equal incomes, and men are drafted into the country’s “industrial army” at the age of 21, serving in the jobs assigned them by the state…Bellamy’s book inspired a movement of “Nationalist Clubs,” whose members campaigned for a government takeover of the economy. A few years before he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy became a founding member of Boston’s first Nationalist Club….

The above was taken from Marginal Revolution, though Alex Tabarrok was just quoting Cato’s Gene Healy. Pretty interesting little factoid.

“Well, what do you think they’re for? … Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against — then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

Ayn Rand understood it even fifty years ago. Why don’t more people understand it today?

Ashley and I (mostly Ashley) started up a business this past week. I’ll just let you go to our website to find out more information.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to do calculus homework. My first real calc class. We are learning about limits right now. Does anyone else think this stuff is fun? A cursory survey of my classmates finds I am in the minority. But anyway, I like it. Am I the only one?

In other news, Ashley and I got married a week and a half ago, Saturday, May 31. Since then, I’ve been in the slow process of moving my stuff over there. Unfortunately, we are remodeling the house and waiting to buy furniture, so I am desk- and workspace-less for the time being. My computer and most of my stuff, therefore, is still at my parents’ house. It should all get moved over within the next 2-3 weeks, though. And then I’ll blog more reguarly, I think.