"The slaves of socialism are slaves, but they are no one's property and therefore no one's loss"
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George Reisman casts a moral and economic argument in a single aphorism. He draws a brutal comparison to show how ownership structures shape incentives, even in matters of life and death. Under chattel slavery, the slave is a capital asset; the owner bears a private cost if that asset is damaged or destroyed. That does not mitigate the evil of slavery, but it does mean the owner has an incentive, however perverse, to preserve the slave’s productive capacity. Under socialism as Reisman understands it, people are coerced into labor by the state or collective, yet are not owned as property by any specific person. Their suffering, illness, or death imposes no direct loss on any identifiable owner, so the costs of abuse are dispersed and largely unaccounted for.
The point is not to praise ownership of persons, but to expose what happens when coercion is combined with the absence of clear, personal responsibility. When no one owns, no one is accountable; when no one is accountable, lives become expendable. Reisman, an economist in the Austrian tradition and a student of Mises, ties this to the broader themes of his work: property rights channel incentives; their absence breeds waste, neglect, and violence. Historical episodes under avowedly socialist regimes—the Gulag, collectivization famines, mass mobilizations that treated labor as an inexhaustible input—illustrate how bureaucrats and planners could consume human lives without internalizing the losses.
He contrasts this with voluntary exchange in a market order, where employers do not own workers but must compete for their skills, invest in training, and bear legal and reputational costs for mistreatment. Critics would counter that democratic socialism aims to embed accountability through rights and institutions, and that capitalism has its own abuses. Reisman’s claim remains a stark warning: abolishing property does not abolish power. If coercion persists while responsibility is diffused, human beings risk becoming a commons to be used up, and tragedies follow.
The point is not to praise ownership of persons, but to expose what happens when coercion is combined with the absence of clear, personal responsibility. When no one owns, no one is accountable; when no one is accountable, lives become expendable. Reisman, an economist in the Austrian tradition and a student of Mises, ties this to the broader themes of his work: property rights channel incentives; their absence breeds waste, neglect, and violence. Historical episodes under avowedly socialist regimes—the Gulag, collectivization famines, mass mobilizations that treated labor as an inexhaustible input—illustrate how bureaucrats and planners could consume human lives without internalizing the losses.
He contrasts this with voluntary exchange in a market order, where employers do not own workers but must compete for their skills, invest in training, and bear legal and reputational costs for mistreatment. Critics would counter that democratic socialism aims to embed accountability through rights and institutions, and that capitalism has its own abuses. Reisman’s claim remains a stark warning: abolishing property does not abolish power. If coercion persists while responsibility is diffused, human beings risk becoming a commons to be used up, and tragedies follow.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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