The Rise and Fall of Property Rights in America By Adam Mossoff Today, the government has unparalleled command and control over all Americans’ property. It now owns and directly controls automobile, banking, and insurance companies. The vast regulatory state—populated with the alphabet-soup agencies, like the SEC, EPA, FDA, FTC, NLRB, etc., etc.—control all aspects of how people live their lives and use their property. How did this come to pass in a country founded on the principle that all individuals have the inalienable right to life, liberty and property?   In this talk, Professor Mossoff answers this question by discussing the rise and fall of property rights in America. He first explains how the Founding Fathers turned theory into practice when they created the United States of America on the basis of the natural rights philosophy. He then discusses how early 20th-century Progressives destroyed the right to property as a necessary first step in creating the modern regulatory state. The effects of this assault on property rights are being dramatically felt today. After surveying this intellectual history, it is clear that a renaissance in the protection of property rights will not occur through merely politics or legal action. A political revolution first requires a proper understanding of the right to property as a fundamental moral right that secures to each individual his sovereign control over his own life and possessions.