Definition

• All property rights start from the fundamental premise that we own ourselves. This is the opposite of slavery, where one person owns another.
• If you do not assert an ownership claim over yourself, then you cannot complain when others take control of your life. There cannot be any freedom without self-ownership.
  • Because we legally own ourselves, it naturally follows that when we labor, we are entitled to the fruits of our labor, whether that is money or goods we have peacefully bargained for. As owners of money or goods, we are entitled to exchange them with others to become the peaceful and rightful owners of whatever was peacefully bargained for and acquired.
• Our property is that which we legally own. It includes one’s body and peacefully acquired possessions, like money, real estate, and personal items.
• If you eat food, wear clothes, or assert the right to control your body, you believe in property rights.

Property ‘rights’

• Property rights, the right to own your property, underpin the law against theft, rape, assault, murder, pollution, and all other victim crimes. Indeed, there can be no aggression without first establishing ownership of property to be aggressed against.
• It is only the extent to which property rights are protected that determines whether a society is free.
• You are free only to the extent you exercise decision-making control over your body and other property.

Property rights do not prevent generosity.

• Owning property does not require selfishness. We can be incredibly generous with that which we own, and in fact, voluntary kindness and seeking win/win outcomes are incorporated into 3L’s Aspirational Values. An owner of land can steward it entirely for the purpose of allowing biodiversity to thrive or growing food to be shared with others. There are so many ways we can be generous stewards of property. Indeed, many people seek to own property for the purpose of sharing it with others.

Grey areas

• Whether intangible items or concepts like information are considered property is a grey area on which reasonable minds disagree.

Three levels of relating to property

• Stage 1: ‘Chaos’ - no property rights; no freedom

  • Without legal enforcement of property rights, theft, rape, assault, murder, and pollution would be pervasive. Some would call this ‘hell’.
  • The 3L Principle, “don’t aggress”, is therefore essential for equality under the law that allows each of us to determine how we choose to control our property and pursue our lives.

• Stage 2: ‘Freedom’ - property rights respected, but people are selfish

  • This is a free society, but not a peaceful one.
  • 3L defends the right of all people not to be aggressed against, even those who don’t adhere to the Aspirational Values.

  Stage 3: ‘Peace’ - property rights respected, and people are generous

  • This is a free and peaceful society.
  • Such a society is not possible without the 3L Principle and voluntary adoption of the Aspirational Values.

The 3L Movement’s mission is to calibrate all laws globally so that the floor is set at stage two (’Freedom’), allowing humanity to voluntarily adopt the Aspirational Values that get us to stage three (’Peace’).