vision2020@moscow.com: How the A's coerce the B's
How the A's coerce the B's
Steve Cooke (SCOOKE@marvin.ag.uidaho.edu)
Fri, 17 Mar 1995 13:20:40 PST8PDT
On Friday the question was asked "How are the B's coerced by the A's?"
Let's assume that A holds the property right to a bushel of wheat
and society recognizes that right. As a result, B cannot also have
the right to that bushel of wheat. (Let's also assume that A & B
are not married and living in a common property state like ID). If A
wants to use that bu. of wheat, A can have access to it without
asking anyone or paying anyone anything - no questions asked. A is
free in this regard and life for A is sweet. However, if B also wants
to use that bu. of wheat, A can deny the use of it to B and the
society will pay for the police to enforce A's decision (B is coerced
to do without by A w/ the support of society). Alternatively, A can
extract a payment in cash or in kind from B (B is coerced to pay by
A) for use of that bu. of wheat and society will supply the court
system to enforce the contract. Thus, in relation to the property
rights on this bu. of wheat, A is free and B is coerced by that
freedom. And so it is with every other set of property rights in
society that makes up a person's opportunity set.
A prerequisite to market exchange is the distribution of property
rights. The neoclassical economic theory of the market economy
assumes a "given distribution of property rights." This discussion of
property rights is fundamental to how a market economy works in my
view.
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