The Restoration of Property. A Reexamination of a Natural Right 12+

📓 "If only because power naturally and necessarily follows property, concentrated ownership of the means of production is the most serious political and economic problem in the world today. People as diverse as Karl Marx and Pope John Paul II have viewed this 'ownership gap' as a root cause of fundamental social problems. It is, as well, a result of flawed and unjust laws and institutions. These, in turn, create flagrant inequalities of economic opportunity and personal freedom. A social order that systematically concentrates economic power must therefore be viewed as an explicit offense against human dignity. The question becomes what to do about it."- Introduction to THE RESTORATION OF PROPERTYIn 1936 Hilaire Belloc, with G. K. Chesterton revered as one of the founders of "distributism," wrote of "the restoration of property." Trapped within what Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler called the slavery of past savings (THE NEW CAPITALISTS, 1961), however, Belloc's insightful analysis suffered from the lack of an effective program of implementation. The best he could do was to recommend burdening the rich with laws and regulations to keep them from using their power to prevent capital acquisition by others. A better, "Just Third Way" solution would be to remove systemic barriers in the form of flawed tax, monetary, financial and legal systems that inhibit or prevent capital acquisition by the non-rich.At a time when most people are focused ...