The protests over access to housing and the debate on evictions raise an issue that goes beyond the price of rent. How are those who need a house protected and what limits can be imposed on those who own it? The writer and philosopher Ayn Rand He defended a clear position on the relationship between property and individual freedom.
“Without property rights, no other rights are possible”he wrote in his essay Man’s Rightstranslated as The rights of man. The text appeared in April 1963 in The Objectivist Newsletter and later joined The virtue of selfishnesspublished in 1964.
The phrase, translated from the English original, summarizes his conviction that freedom needs a material basis. For Rand, a person should be able to keep and use the results of their work to decide about their own life.
What did Ayn Rand mean with this phrase?
His argument started from a simple question. What autonomy does someone have who can work and produce, but not decide what to do with what they get? Rand understood property as a protection against the imposition of othersincluding the State.
In that same essay he distinguished between having the right to acquire goods and being guaranteed that they will be received. His defense of property referred to the freedom to obtain, preserve, use and dispose of it, without this implying assuring each individual a specific patrimony.
From that perspective, the Government’s task should be protect individual rights. The author linked this function with her defense of capitalism and voluntary exchanges.
The connection to the rent debate
Read in the context of the housing mobilizations, the phrase allows us to examine one of the points of disagreement. The measures on rentals and evictions affect both the living conditions of tenants and the ability of owners to dispose of their properties.
The case of Maricarmenevicted at the age of 87 from the home in which she had spent more than seven decades, has situated this discussion in a concrete experience. The loss of a home also implies abandoning a neighborhood, routines and a network of relationships that are not replaced solely with other accommodation.
At the same time, the political negotiation on new measures requires specifying what obligations the owners would assume and what response the administrations would offer. Protection against eviction, the conditions for renewing a contract or restrictions on certain purchases are different decisions, although they are part of the same debate.
Rand’s phrase expresses a philosophical position. It does not resolve by itself how each situation should be regulated nor does it allow us to attribute an opinion on the cases and proposals that are discussed today in Spain.
Private property and its social function in Spain
The Spanish framework incorporates elements that must be read together. He article 33 of the Constitution recognizes the right to private property and inheritance, and establishes that its social function will delimit its content in accordance with the laws.
For his part, the article 47 recognizes the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing and entrusts public authorities with promoting the conditions to make it effective. It also contemplates the regulation of land use in accordance with the general interest to prevent speculation.
The discussion on housing requires specifying how these mandates are articulated. What protection the tenant receives, what the owner can demand and what resources the Administration provides are the questions that a rule must answer when the conflict stops being theoretical and reaches the door of a house.