Property Wrongs and Egalitarian Relations

Abstract

This chapter argues that private property in fact is necessary to realizing relational equality. It asserts that one requires property rights to satisfy the moral requirement that we relate to one another on terms of equality. The chapter shows that the obligations of property, and the concomitant wrongs made possible by those obligations, are what makes property good from an egalitarian perspective. Many of the valuable social roles that people occupy are structured and indeed constituted by the law of private property (e.g., roles of homeowner, host, and gift-giver). These roles, moreover, are accompanied by valuable counterpart roles (those of neighbor, guest, and gift-recipient). This chapter thus argues that the relations that obtain between these pairings are egalitarian insofar as the parties to them relate on equal terms, and it maintains that it is the law of private property that makes such relations possible.