TImes change but Principles DON'T
No one would make the effort to acquire anything that would immediately be stolen. The right to acquire is primary, for possession serves acquisition. Government protects the possessions of the rich in order to guarantee the right of the non-rich to acquire what they need for their convenience and happiness.
Property Rights and Free Markets: Economic Principles of America's Founders - Although there are many scholarly treatments of the Founders’ understanding of property and economics, few of them present an overview of the complete package of the principles and policies upon which they agreed. Even the fact that there was a consensus among the Founders is often denied. Government today has strayed far from the Founders’ approach to economics, but the older policies have not been altogether replaced. Some of the Founders’ complex set of policies to protect property rights are still in force. America has abandoned the Founders’ views on the gold and silver standard, the prohibition of monopolies, the presumption of freedom to use property as one likes, freedom of contract, and restricting regulation to the protection of health, safety, and morals. But in other respects, America continues to offer a surprising degree of protection to property rights in the Founders’ sense of that term [Heritage Foundation]
