Who Benefits from an Ownership Society? It Depends on What You Own

By Ali Massoud

I had a friend in college who could have literally been the model for the Bluto character in the movie Animal House. He trashed so many rented houses, apartments, and dorm rooms that he had to work two summer jobs to pay for the damage done to his dorm room before the university would let him re-enroll. When he did register for his senior year, he had to live in a flophouse for transients and street people over in the rundown area south of the main campus. No one would take him on as a roommate, tenant, or sublet to him. Word gets around you see.

So image my surprise when I ran into him a few years later and he invited my wife and I over to his condominium. I warned wifey in the car on the way over to be careful where she stepped and sat, and not to mind the small piles of pizza boxes and stale beer cans everywhere, and to ignore the dirty sock smell. If she had to pee, she should try to hold it. His bathroom was not somewhere the mother of my children was ever going to visit. I was trying to prepare her for the Third World level of cleanliness and hygiene I presumed of him from long experience

Boyo, was I wrong. The place was spotlessly clean, tastefully decorated, and beautifully maintained. Later I asked him about it. “Oh sure I trashed all those other places Ali, “he said”, they were just rentals.”

I should have known. Philosophers as far back as Aristotle have noted that, "What belongs in common to the most people is accorded the least care: they take thought for their own things above all, and less about things common, or only so much as falls to each individually."

Most people have noted that homeowners take much better care of their houses than renters do. That is not because renters are all bad people. It is just that you are more attentive to details when you stand to profit from your home’s rising value or to suffer if it deteriorates. I did not appreciate this insight at the time, but my friend did, because real-estate values and such were all he talked about the whole evening.

Just as homeownership creates responsible homeowners, widespread ownership of other assets creates responsible citizens. People who are owners feel more dignity, more pride, and more confidence. They have a stronger stake, not just in their own property, but in their community and their society.

Another political benefit of private property ownership is that it diffuses power. When the government owns all property, individuals have little protection from the whims of politicians. The institution of private property gives many individuals a place to call their own, a place where they are safe from depredation by others and by the state. This aspect of private property is captured in the axiom: "A man's home is his castle."

While I have many reservations about Bush’s idea of government creating or promoting an “ownership society” (because all we are going to “own” when he gets through is a big stack of IOU’s and a debased currency), the concept itself is sound.

In other words Bush is going to rack-up all this debt and then leave office and so we are then a “You are on your own-ership society”.

Despite what we hear from the voodoo economists and pundits left over from the Reagan era, my reading of all this is that it would be better to have higher taxes and a smaller (or no) deficit than the reverse, which Mr. Bush is intent on delivering to us. Mr. Bush will leave us owning nothing but a gigantic debt to pay off, and “owning” a lot of debt is not my idea of what an ownership society ought to be.

As with all the schemes and grand visions of the statist politicians, advocates of rationalism and liberty should ask, “who benefits? ” I have determined it very likely won’t be us regular folks. After all, how much can you expect from Bush? He doesn’t own the White House. For him it “just a rental”.

"Chemical Ali" Massoud is a father, political theorist, apostate Muslim, small business owner, college graduate, crack rifle marksman, a compulsiveblogger, cat lover, shrewd investor, US Army veteran, and currently single. He lives in Michigan. To see what he means by "Anarchy," and other ideas he has click here