Private property rights are crucial to economic prosperity. Without them, it becomes impossible to set up a system of free markets that allows for rational economic calculation. Despite this, property rights are under attack in today’s world by progressives seeking to build a more “just” society through equity.When property is originally appropriated, it belongs to its owner. The owner may use, transform, sell, or even not use his property at all, based solely on his own discretion. The owner of something has the most incentive to use his property responsibly. This might occur in the form of consuming a good with moderation or using a tool in the most efficient production process. The appropriation of property is a path towards wealth. In a free market system, one

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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Time preference refers to the preference of satisfaction in the present as compared to a future time. A person who heavily prefers current consumption to future consumption has a high time preference as he places a heavy premium upon satisfaction as soon as possible. By contrast, a person who does not place a heavy premium upon instant satisfaction has a low time preference. People with low time preferences are more likely to save and invest their money for greater future rewards. This tendency to delay consumption for the sake of increased production leads to the accumulation of wealth that propels the process of civilization.In Democracy: The God That Failed, Hans-Hermann Hoppe states:However, no matter what a person’s original time-preference rate or what the

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito

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