David R. Henderson has a nice piece on property rights.  The title of this post is a quote from Henderson’s article.

It’s a nice piece with three example of “policy issues’ that cause conflict and one that does not cause conflict.  Here’s his first paragraph:

Should restaurants allow smoking or not? Should schools teach evolution or intelligent design or both? Should insurance companies cover contraception? Should I be able to take off my shoes in your living room?

Most people think that the first three are policy issues, while the fourth is a private issue.  Henderson shows are not policy issues at all.  People only think they are policy issues because governments have already taken away property rights.  It’s a quick read, and well worth the time.