Scarcity: a Flawed Idea
Libertarians make the mistake of basing their conception of private property on the principle of scarcity.
This is an excerpt from the article “Libertarianism vs. Anthemism” which was published at anthemism.org/article/libertarianism-vs-anthemism on Dec 7, 2024.
Objectivism opposes an idea prevalent in Libertarianism: the notion that scarcity defines what can be considered property. Based on this view, libertarians argue that only physical goods or real estate can be private property, while creations of the mind cannot. They claim that since intellectual or virtual products can be copied without diminishing the original, there is no harm in duplication. The original owner keeps what he had, and someone else simply gains a copy.
Objectivism, however, offers a fundamentally different perspective. It asserts that all things of value, whether physical or virtual, are products of the human mind’s creative activity. Therefore, the creator has the right to these products as private property.
Moreover, Objectivism rejects the idea that scarcity should serve as a foundation for property rights or philosophical theories. Scarcity is ultimately a temporary condition because:
A resource is only scarce if it is considered valuable by an individual—a concept that evolves over time (for example, what a caveman disregarded may be valuable to a modern person).
Humans use their ingenuity, reason, and collaboration to create more of a scarce resource or develop alternatives, thereby overcoming scarcity.
Historical examples of resources that were once scarce but are now abundant include: clean drinking water, bananas, electricity, spices, salt, coffee, chocolate, wheat, sugar, fabric, light, paper, soap, book printing, ice and refrigeration.
The libertarian rejection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights has led to attempts to form societies that are inherently unworkable and unsustainable.
Is there a better way? Yes, private property is a corollary of individual rights.
Individual Rights
What are individual rights, and where do they come from? The opening sentence of the American Declaration of Independence declares that the authors consider it self-evident that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” However, Objectivism denies the existence of a singular God, gods, or any form of mysticism, including spiritualism, karma, reincarnation, astrology, and the prediction of the future, due to the lack of evidence. So, what alternative justification does Objectivism offer for the existence of individual rights?
Ayn Rand, the creator of Objectivism, defines the concept of right as a “moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context.” In her essay Man’s Rights, found in the Virtue of Selfishness, page 93, she elaborates,
A “right” is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action—which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.)
The concept of a “right” pertains only to action—specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men.
Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positive—of his freedom to act on his own judgment, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoerced choice. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative kind: to abstain from violating his rights.
The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.
Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values.