Call it old and avoid the issue

That’s how Brett Marston approaches political philosophy. Concepts like, oh, “freedom,” are just outdated, you know.

Laws which force some people to labor for the benefit of other people are indeed stealing. A historical preservation ordinance which effectively forbids the construction of homes, and therefore forces young people who are trying to find places for their families to live to settle for poorer quality, higher-priced homes, just because Brett Marston would prefer that his neighborhood look a certain way, is indeed a type of theft—it is the same old serpent that says you work, and Brett Marston will enjoy the fruits of it.

Laws which forbid members of the working class from working overtime and earning more money for themselves and their families—supposedly for their own good!—are even worse. Mr. Marston, who likes to call other folks “elite,” thinks he has the right to tell poor people how much they can work, and the right to make their housing more scarce; that his benevolent heart should dictate the terms on which poor people can choose to work to support themselves and their families, and that his aesthetic sense should dictate the terms on which other people can find places to live. And I am the elite?

The issue has nothing to do with the “economic world” or the alleged “changes” in it. The issue has to do with whether anyone has the right to tell another person how he may live his life, economically or in any other way. And the answer to that is no—all men are created equal, and have the right to excercise their liberty without interference, including the right to work overtime if they so choose, and the right to spend their earnings as they please. Nobody has the right to take these things from them, either in the form of old-fashioned robbery, or in the form of laws which forbid cheap new housing and working overtime. No amount of “changes” in the “economic world” can make it just or moral for a person to legally forbid the construction of cheap new housing, or to legally forbid people from working longer if they so choose.

The bottom line: you do not help poor people by making their jobs illegal or their housing more expensive. But you do make yourself feel like a more compassionate person.