ILYA SOMIN ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY: “My point, however, is not to criticize Ayers for his hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a minor offense compared to his real crimes. Rather, I want to emphasize that this is a small example of how property rights play an important role in protecting unpopular people. Private property gives minorities with unpopular views, lifestyles, or identities, a secure space in which they are protected from the hostility of the majority. Tom Palmer’s excellent post on the way in which the rise of private property rights has increased freedom for gays in China is an interesting recent example. In that respect, property rights play a role similar to that of freedom speech. But while the importance of freedom of speech in protecting unpopular minorities is widely understood, many people still believe that property rights mostly benefit only the wealthy, powerful, and popular. As the very different examples of Ayers and the Chinese gays demonstrate, that is not so.”

If private property rights only benefited the powerful, there wouldn’t be so many powerful people putting them down.