Editing Property (section)

===Contemporary views===

Contemporary political thinkers who believe that natural persons enjoy rights to own property and enter into contracts espouse two views about John Locke. On the one hand, some admire Locke, such as [[William Harold Hutt|William H. Hutt]] (1956), who praised Locke for laying down the "quintessence of individualism." On the other hand, those such as [[Richard Pipes]] regard Locke's arguments as weak and think that undue reliance thereon has weakened the cause of individualism in recent times. Pipes has written that Locke's work "marked a regression because it rested on the concept of [[Natural Law]]" rather than upon Harrington's sociological framework.

[[Hernando de Soto Polar|Hernando de Soto]] has argued that an essential characteristic of the capitalist market economy is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal [[property system]] which records ownership and transactions. These property rights and the whole legal system of property make possible:
* Greater independence for individuals from local community arrangements to protect their assets
* Clear, provable, and protectable ownership
* The standardization and integration of property rules and property information in a country as a whole
* Increased trust arising from a greater certainty of punishment for cheating in economic transactions
* More formal and complex written statements of ownership that permit the more straightforward assumption of shared risk and ownership in companies, and insurance against the risk
* Greater availability of loans for new projects since more things can serve as collateral for the loans
* Easier access to and more reliable information regarding such things as credit history and the worth of assets
* Increased [[fungibility]], standardization, and transferability of statements documenting the ownership of property, which paves the way for structures such as national markets for companies and the easy transportation of property through complex networks of individuals and other entities
* Greater protection of biodiversity due to minimizing of [[shifting agriculture]] practices

According to de Soto, all of the above enhance [[economic growth]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm |title=Finance & Development, March 2001 – The Mystery of Capital |work=Finance, and Development – F&D |access-date=14 May 2015}}</ref> Academics have criticized the capitalist frame through which property is viewed pointing to the fact that commodifying property or land by assigning it monetary value takes away from the traditional cultural heritage, particularly from first nation inhabitants.<ref name= "ReferenceA">Kristen A. Carpenter, Sonia Katyal, and Angela Riley, 'In Defense of Property' [2009] 118 Yale L J 101, 101–117, 124–138</ref><ref>Margaret Jane Radin, Property and Personhood, 34 STAN. L. REV. 957, 1013-15 (1982)</ref> These academics point to the personal nature of property and its link to identity being irreconcilable with wealth creation that contemporary Western society subscribes to.<ref name=" ReferenceA"/>