Property Rights

George Washington University economist Walter Williams, writing for the Cato Institute, has penned a terrific essay about how tobacco legislation is used to undermine property rights:

"The totalitarian method to resolve the conflict is through political power and guns. In other words, the group with the greatest power to organize government's brute force decides whether there'll be smoking or no smoking in restaurants.

"The liberty-oriented method to resolve conflict is through the institution of private property. In fact, conflict resolution is one of the primary functions of private property, namely it decides who gets to decide how what property is used in what way. Put another way: Who may harm whom in what ways? In a nutshell, private property rights have to do with rights held by an owner to keep, acquire and use property in ways so long as he doesn't interfere with similar rights held by another."

Williams is right, and now we see the tobacco model of tyranny being employed against an array of industries, including alcohol, fast food, and firearms. It's a sad turn of events.