Wealth Creation
“Any material element or resource which, in order to become of use or value to men, requires the application of human knowledge and effort, should be private property—by the right of those who apply the knowledge and effort.”
“The Property Status of Airwaves,” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
“The source of property rights is the law of causality. All property and all forms of wealth are produced by man’s mind and labor. As you cannot have effects without causes, so you cannot have wealth without its source: without intelligence. You cannot force intelligence to work: those who’re able to think, will not work under compulsion: those who will, won’t produce much more than the price of the whip needed to keep them enslaved. You cannot obtain the products of a mind except on the owner’s terms, by trade and by volitional consent. Any other policy of men toward man’s property is the policy of criminals, no matter what their numbers. Criminals are savages who play in short-range and starve when their prey runs out—just as you’re starving today, you who believed that crime could be ‘practical’ if your government decreed that robbery was legal and resistance to robbery illegal.”
“This is John Galt Speaking,” For the New Intellectual
- “Vindicating Capitalism: The Real History of Standard Oil” (An article by Alex Epstein in The Objective Standard)
- “Deep Six the Law of the Sea” (An op-ed by Thomas A. Bowden)