Theory of Socialism and Capitalism Pt. 2: Property & Aggression

{Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd installment of a series of articles intended to encourage others to read Hoppe's great economic treatise, [amazon_link id="B001D0MPYK" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism[/amazon_link].  It's pronounced HAH-PAH, yeah.  Check out the first part here.}Hoppe's introduction gives the reader a heads-up on what to expect from the subsequent chapters. He defines his thesis and sets his goal: the demolition of the intellectual credibility of socialism, both morally and economically. In order to accomplish his goal and to avert what Hoppe calls "intellectual disaster", concepts such as Property, Contract, Aggression, Capitalism, and Socialism must be properly defined.In order for the concept of property to emerge, there must be a scarcity of goods. Hoppe describes property rights with respects to bananas in a banana paradise, where  consumption of bananas does not affect the future supply of bananas or other banana enthusiasts' ability to enjoy them. Since there is no scarcity of bananas, there is no need for property rights with concerns to them. But, if there were a finite amount of bananas, conflict would arise. Everyone loves bananas. It is here where property rights, rights of exclusive ownership, emerge to avoid banana chaos.Hoppe then takes us to the Garden of Eden where there is no scarcity of bananas or whatever. In this paradise, every person's body becomes the 'prototype' of a scarce good. In order to avoid conflict over one's body, property rights have to be established yet again. "I might, for instance, want to use my body to enjoy drinking a cup of tea, while someone else might want to start a love affair with it." This "natural position", one of exclusive ownership of one's body, could be useful in convincing the 'liberal' pro-choice crowd of the validity in property rights, capitalism, and - after a few months of [amazon_link id="1933550996" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]reading Rothbard[/amazon_link] - the total abolition of the State. Hoppe continues by analyzing the interpersonal relationships, or contractual exchanges, between body owners. These contracts are agreements based on mutual respect and recognition of each exchanging partners' control of their own bodies. A violation of these 'body contracts' would be defined as aggression.If the Garden of Eden is to be disturbed by aggressively founded ownership, there are two effects, both economic and social. The economic effect under the abolition of private ownership results in a reduction in the amount of investment in human capital. If someone else determines the uses of my body, my "psychic income" derived from using my body for certain goals would ultimately be reduced because of the limited available options. The social effect of aggression would be the change in the social structure. No longer are bodies privately owned; they are subject to use of others. This increasing shift from nonaggressive to aggressive roles would slowly change the moral composition of the 'body society.' "In short, with these two effects we have already pinpointed the most fundamental reasons for socialism's being an economically inferior system of property arrangements."Hoppe finishes this chapter by distinguishing between the pure capitalist system:

A social system based on this natural position regarding the assignment of property rights

and socialism:

If this system is altered and instead a policy is instituted that assigns rights of exclusive control over scarce means, however partial, to persons or groups of persons that can point neither to an act of previous usership of the things concerned, nor to a contractual relation with some previous user-owner, then this will be called (partial) socialism.

 All concepts in this chapter are definable in terms of property:Aggression -  being aggressive against propertyContract - being a nonaggressive relationship between property ownersSocialism - being an institutionalized policy of aggression against propertyCapitalism - being an institutionalized policy of the recognition of property and contractualism.Chapter 2 down. Tune in next week for Socialism Russian Style!Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!