The Welfare State and the Importance of Property Rights

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

David Frum: Many of the things that affect our lives are not chosen. So why don't we talk about redistribution then in that setting? In property rights, there is a concern. He says Payne makes an argument and it's a very interesting and careful argument for how beginning from Lockean principles can lead us to redistributing some wealth from the rich to the poor. It's an entirely different way of thinking about the relationship between the individual and his society.

Yuval Levin, author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left, talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Burke and Paine and their influence on the evolution of political philosophy. Levin outlines the differing approaches of the two thinkers to liberty, authority, and how reform and change should take place. Other topics discussed include Hayek's view of tradition, Cartesian rationalism, the moral high ground in politics, and how the "right and left" division of American politics finds its roots in the debates of these thinkers from the 1700s.