In Ideas Have Consequences, that seminal 20th century work of conservative philosophy, Richard Weaver explains that property rights are one of modern man’s last ties to God, a physical testimony that something transcends the physical world.  As long as property rights are respected, as they generally have been in Western thought and life, mankind is free to redeem the world through good, hard, creative, productive work.  Michael Heller has a new book that may challenge some of this received wisdom about property rights, though.  It’s called The Gridlock Economy.

The Gridlock Economy takes aim at one of the strongest intuitions in Anglo-American thought: that property is a good thing, and more property is almost always better. In fact, views on property, since about the time of John Locke, have bordered on reverential. Locke, for instance, described property as a natural right given to man by God as the reward for labor.

Heller, “argues that creating too many property rights can actually wreck markets.”  His thesis is this:

A property right creates a gatekeeper-someone whose permission is needed to use that thing we’ve just called “property.” That’s fine, but when you have too many gatekeepers-too many people whose permission is necessary to undertake a given project-that fact alone can create gridlock. It is one thing to get, say, five people to agree to something, but if the number is 500 or even 5 million, the project is sure to go up in smoke.

This essay about the book is worth reading and explains how the concept of “mass permission” impedes the market.  “Mass permission.”  Sounds like a euphemism for “democracy.”