The American Thinker on April 19, 2008 published an interesting article “Privacy and Property Rights” by Larrey Anderson found here. This lively and informative presentation begins with a discussion of what our founding fathers intended when creating our Constitution and Bill of Rights as referenced by the following excerpt from Anderson’s article.
There are at least four reasons property rights were protected by the founding fathers. Property provides four things for the owner: (1) Security. A home is a shelter from the elements and from hostile others. (2) Income. The farmer's field and the merchant's shop are the focus of their labor and the source of their income. (3) Personal identity. Each of us differentiates ourselves from others by the personal and real properties we chose to purchase. Property helps define us: we are what we buy. Farmer's buy farmland. Merchants buy shops. People buy goods that are expressions of their personalities and their lifestyles. (4) Privacy. What we do within the walls of our home is, pretty much, whatever we chose to do. It follows that the government's protection of my property is also the protection of my security, my income, my identity, and my privacy.
What happens when we step outside of our home or business and enter the public realm? In this sphere, security is provided by the police (and, once upon a time, by the Second Amendment). Income is protected by the government's enforcement of contract law. (If I work for someone else on their property, I enter into a contract with that person for my wages.) Personal identity, at least in terms of its expression through the purchase of property, is protected by the free exchange of goods and services. (I can buy a mink coat for my wife in spite of PETA's protestations.)
But what of privacy? How can the government protect our privacy once we step outside of the home? Or can the government even protect our privacy in public? In order to answer these questions we must first be able to define, in specific terms, what privacy is.
The article by Anderson continues outlining what has gone wrong and how we can go about fixing it.
An interesting read for all concerned about our private property and what rights we have to keep it. Again, Larrey Anderson’s April 19 American Thinker article can be found here.
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