Attitudes to ownership of property vary. While sane people with a sense of moral decency do not argue over the 'fundamental rights' that are fundamental to life and liberty, 'property rights' have been rather controversial. Private ownership, to those of deep Marxist persuasion, is bad; the state should own everything in the name of the people, they insist, and everyone should share it all.

Economists-real world economists, that is-have been sighing exasperated sighs ever since. And that's not just because of the naiveté of that utopian idealisation, but because they have very good reasons to vouch for the utility of the genuinely good global idea that is 'property rights'.

Take this extract from a paper entitled The New Comparative Economics, written by a team of economists led by Harvard's Andrei Shleifer: "Since the days of the Enlightenment, economists have argued that good economic institutions must secure property rights, enabling people to keep the returns on their investment, make contracts, and resolve disputes. By encouraging people to invest in themselves and in physical capital, such security fosters economic growth." The paper speaks of sound institutions, devised to contain disorder and dictatorship alike, as a prerequisite for prosperity. It makes an allowance for public ownership as a concept if and only if private control (say, of armed forces or any hazardous substance) could result in disorder or dictatorship. The paper's basic property emphasis, however, clearly echoes Adam Smith's 1776 concerns about people "afraid of the violence of their superiors". No one, Smith argued, should have to fear arbitrary confiscation of property by the state, thugs or even monopolies. Taking it further, high inflation also amounts to snatching away savings-the equivalent of state victimisation.

To William Bernstein, author of The Birth of Plenty, 'scientific rationalism', 'effective capital markets' and 'efficient communications and transport', are all critical to modern wealth creation, but in order of priority after 'property rights'. This, once again, goes to the core of people's attitudes towards property. People, Bernstein says, must "secure the fruits of their efforts". And this must be seen in society as an ethical imperative.