So, it behooves the least of the property owners to protect his own interest in the market economy his interest as a consumer. The man who brings his goods or services to market, in trade for property he would consume, is interested in the mobility of property for easy conversion to his purposes, not protectionism and stagnation in formerly profitable uses - and not a political diversion of property to uses no one is willing to pay for. The market has been severely, and unjustly, condemned of late for allowing or even encouraging the waste of natural resources and the serious pollution of air, water, morals, and other requisites for clean living. They have been treated as public property, the responsibility of government, nobody's business in particular. Hopefully, it may be realized in time that such things as air and water and human virtue are scarce and valuable resources, that they should be subject to private ownership and control, and that government's sole responsibility is to protect the owner against robbers and vandals and at the same time hold him responsible if he uses his property in ways injurious to others.
Private ownership is a social function.
An Open Society Capitalism presupposes an open society in which the ends are determined by individuals, or by voluntary associations of individuals. But, as we shall see, it was James Madison, the scholar among the Founding Fathers, who put his finger unerringly on the need for a device which will put automatic checks on government if any freedoms are to flourish. Purely as a practical matter the institutions of an open society demand the safeguards of a limited government. In the market society the proprietors of capital and land can enjoy their property only by employing it for the satisfaction of other people's wants. They must serve the consumers in order to have any advantage from what is their own.