The Ethics Of Liberty - Interpersonal Relations: Ownership And Aggression
The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard In the previous chapter Rothbard spells out one type of interpersonal relationship where individuals interact with one another on a voluntary basis. He showed logically that when people exchange what they have produced with one another they both benefit. The foundation of production and exchange is the idea that you own your own body and the resources you produce by mixing your labor with land. This mixing also gives ownership rights of that land to the individual. Herein is defined the absolutely free society or libertarian society. In contrast there is another type of interpersonal relationship, which is the " use of aggressive violence ". Instead of individuals trading their goods with one another, one person takes the property of another by force. With respect to the concept of a person's right to control his own body there are two alternatives, either individuals own themselves completely or they d...