My Dog Does Not Own My House

A group of homeowners recognize that they spend too much time, which might be better spent sleeping or working, patrolling and defending the boundaries of their fields and pastures. So they commission a pack of dogs, large fierce dogs, to carry out this rather simple function on their behalf.

The dogs are perhaps smelly, and noisy, and not too bright, but they are quite capable of carrying out the limited function envisioned for them by the homeowners: bark loudly at intruders near the border to warn them off, and bite anyone who actually crosses the border.

The landowners selectively breed the dog pack over time, and the dogs develop rudimentary speech abilities, and opposable thumbs. The dogs are now able to carry out their function at a very high level, conducting night surveillance of property and defending that property against anyone without authorization. In fact, this dog pack is the best, the smartest, and the most dangerous dog pack the world has ever known. The citizens feel very secure.

One day, a homeowner returns to his house and finds the dogs sitting on his couch, eating his food, and watching his television. Outraged, he confronts them: “How dare you violate my property, which you are supposed to protect?”

The head dog is utterly unashamed. In fact, he says, "You didn't earn this house."

The dog points out that the only reason that the homeowner is able to leave his house to work and earn money is that the dogs protect the house. Thus, in the dog’s view, the dogs have a better claim to ownership than the putative “owner,” because without the dogs there would be no ownership, no roads, no businesses. The dog says it again: "You didn't create that business, you didn't earn this house."


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Now, the dogs aren't bad dogs. In fact, the dogs tell them man, "We are GOOD dogs. We agree to continue to allow you to use the house, and the grounds. But it is only because the we are magnanimous, and fair-minded. In fact, all the property in the community is a creation of, because it is contingent on, the good will of the dog pack."

If one simply substitutes “state” for “dog pack” in this narrative, one has the now-standard account of contingency in property in most societies: the state creates the very possibility of legal title, and the state further protects that title, because the state finds it in the collective interest to do so.

Here's the thing: it's true that we need roads, and defense, and other public goods, for business to thrive and prosper. That's why we have taxes. The business, and the homeowners, pay their taxes, and the dog-state provides public goods. We're even-Steven, we paid already, at the office, at the house, at the property. For the dogs to come around now and say we owe more is crazy. For the big dog to say, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that!" is the sign of a misunderstanding so fundamental that it should be a disqualification for public office. If I produce public goods, and you pay for them, we're done. You don't owe me more because the public goods proved to be as useful as you thought they were when you contracted for them in the first place.

Suppose the grocer knocked on your door. He asks if you bought water. You agree, you bought some water.

The grocer says, "Well, water is really valuable. You would die without water. You didn't bottle that water; I bottled that water! You owe me more money. You didn't pay me enough."

I don't see how a bunch of dogs demanding more money for public goods we already paid for is any different.With thanks to Tony de Jasay, who came up with the idea of the fable. I adapted it a bit, but it's his idea.

UPDATE: Oh, and another thing. Bob Nozick has this wonderful essay on why intellectuals hate capitalism. You can hear it in President Obama's sneer, "There are a LOT of smart people out there." He thinks you should get paid for being smart, and making good grades. That's just the sort of nonsense that Nozick hammers in the essay.

UPDATE II:  If you don't like my fable, you might consider Jason Brennan's more serious route to the same conclusion.

UPDATE III:  Good lord, commenters.  You can defend your belief that your dog owns your house, if you want.  But you can't really believe that the left doesn't believe exactly what I say it believes.  Here is Elizabeth Warren, famously saying that her dogs own your house.

“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.

“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”