Most of the participants are probably unaware of how they contribute to the larger scheme of things. Yet each of them, by carrying out relatively minor specialized tasks, helps to bring coffee to our breakfast table. At every step in the complicated production process from plantation to coffee cup, entrepreneurs coordinate the activities of the many participants. For this it takes a market. Today we live in a contract society.
Property is controlled by neither king nor dictator.
The most important right of a property owner is the right of disposal, the right to control the use of his or her property. Once property owners gain the right of disposal, they may exchange property with one another, by contract, purchase, sale, deed, or bequest. Thus, there are exchanges and markets, and people are relatively well supplied with food, clothing, and shelter. In a market society, the owner of consumption goods is free to decide how they will be used. Owners may consume them, give them away, bequeath them, or even willfully destroy them, so long as there is no interference with the equal rights of others.