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LifeTrek Coaching International
Celebrate the Best for Exceptional Results
Mobile Site for: www.LifeTrekCoaching.com
Mobile Home • Weekly Provision • About
January 24, 2010
Property Rights
by Bob Tschannen-Moran
Laser Provision
Most people know of the most famous sentence in the United States Declaration of Independence, namely that people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Most people do not know, however, that earlier documents and drafts asserted the Rights to "Life, Liberty, and Property." It was taken as self-evident that people had the right to own things and to protect as well as to add value to what they owned. "Do not steal," the eighth commandment of Moses, reflects that understanding. But property rights are a complicated guideline for living, and I invite you to read further to explore them more fully.
We're in the midst of our series on Guidelines for Living and we've covered several of the most universal and obvious, including empathy, responsibility, solidarity, nonviolence, and honesty. Although expressed in different ways, these elements and values appear in virtually every version of "The Ten Commandments," across every culture and creed, from the most ancient and religious to the most modern and secular. Even when these values are contradicted, such as in times of war, they are usually suspended reluctantly and with cause. People want to get back to them as soon as possible.If you detect a certain discomfort around the notion of property rights
in these other versions, you are on to one of the conundrums growing out of
the devastating earthquake in Haiti. When starving people in dire
circumstances steal food from razed buildings, are they to be condemned as
looters or respected as survivors? If everyone has the right to "security of
person," to be "treated with respect," and to "dedicate a share of their
efforts to the greater good," then perhaps "Do not steal" is not as clear
cut a guideline for living as we might, at first, presume.
That said, even in Haiti there's a huge difference between stealing for
survival from razed buildings and stealing for gain from each other. My
heart constricts when I hear stories of fit, young men muscling their way to
carry off food and water meant for women, children, and the elderly. I grow
even more discomfited when I read of rescue workers being stoned by volatile
crowds. "Survival of the fittest" may be a tenant of natural selection, but
it does not reflect and embody the guidelines that make life worth living.
There is more to life than self-serving actions and personal-aggrandizement.
Even in the midst of poverty and crisis there is a place for mutual respect
and dedication to the common good.
This represents at least one way to understand the notion of "Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness" as being "unalienable Rights." When Thomas
Jefferson penned those words, arguably among the most famous in the English
language, he was standing in a long tradition of Enlightenment thinkers,
going back at least a hundred years to John Locke and others in the
mid-seventeenth century. These thinkers wrote many treatises and essays
regarding the notion of universal human rights and the role of government in
protecting those rights.
Locke and others preferred to describe those rights in terms of "Life,
Liberty, and Property." The role of government, Locke held, was to preserve
and protect those three fundamental rights, all of which were seen as
inextricably interrelated. Little children let us know how that works. Often
one of the first words a toddler learns, and one that is pressed into
service gleefully, again and again, is "Mine!". Even very young children
have an emerging sense of connection between identity and property. When one
gets threatened, the other gets threatened, and vice-versa.
Jefferson and the others who drafted the United States Declaration of
Independence took things in a new direction when they substituted "the
pursuit of Happiness" for the ownership of property. In making that change,
perhaps they were anticipating the critique of Karl Marx, namely, that
protecting and asserting property rights was mostly a way for the rich to
get richer and the poor to get poorer. At least that's one way to interpret
the import of how the Declaration of Independence is worded. It challenges
us to start asking larger questions as to what constitutes Happiness and how
to pursue it in the context of society.
When I was visiting Hồ Chi Minh City in Viet-Nam last November, I was
surprised to learn that Viet-Nam proclaimed its independence from French
colonial rule in 1945 with those exact same words. The assertion of "Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" as "inalienable Rights" was described
as an "immortal statement." It was taken to mean that, "All the
peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to
live, to be happy and free." Since those Rights were being abused and denied
under French colonial rule, Hồ Chi Minh and others asserted the
Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam.
Just like in Haiti, it can be dangerous and revolutionary to push people
beyond the brink of despair.
So property rights, when viewed from the vantage point of those universal
Guidelines for Living, must be seen and set in the context of every
other right. We do not have a right to property, no matter what. Our rights
and the rights of others must coexist in mutually creative and
life-supporting ways. When we assert our rights over and against the rights
of others, we must consider factors other than selfish gain. We must also
consider the question of the greater good and how we can best serve the
world with our property.
I am pleased, therefore, that the world is responding to the situation in
Haiti with such compassion and charity. Notwithstanding the issue of the
world's response to Haiti's chronic poverty, it is right for the world to
respond now. One country's pain is every country's responsibility. The
recent, celebrity Hope for Haiti
Telethon has raised more than $58M US and counting. 100% of those funds
are being channeled to relief organizations, including those I mentioned in
last week's Provision, such as the
Red Cross,
Partners In Health,
and the
United Nations
World Food Programme. If you have not already done so, or even if you
have and you want to do more, I encourage you to participate in the
effort.
The point here is simply to recognize that all people have a right to
property at the most basic of levels. When subsistence-level needs go
wanting, the "pursuit of Happiness" takes predictable form and urgency. When
people are hungry, they want food. When people are thirsty, they want water.
When people are naked, they want clothes. When people are homeless, they
want shelter. When people are broke, they want money. When people are sick,
they want health care.
Basics matter. It's not possible for everyone in the world to have more than
enough. Property rights cannot make that claim. It's essential, however,
that everyone in the world has at least enough. Property rights and the
pursuit of Happiness assert that claim. Given that more than 3 billion
people -- about half of the entire human population -- live on less than
$2.50 a day, we are a long way from realizing the dream and protecting the
right that everyone have at least enough. But the dream lives on and the
right to Happiness will not be denied.
Coaching Inquiries: How do you understand your right to the property you
own? How can you best use your property and resources to preserve and
protect the rights of others? What fears do you have when you think of
sharing your property with others? How can you reach beyond your fears to
see the needs? Who embodies for you a happy and healthy relationship to
money? How can you become more like them?
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