Why are private property rights important?

“They are among the most ancient and basic of human rights, and among the most essential to freedom and progress.  They are the privileges of private ownership which give meaning to the right to the product of one’s labor—privileges which men have always regarded instinctively as belonging to them almost as intimately and inseparably as their own bodies.  Unless people can feel secure in their ability to retain the fruits of their labor, there is little incentive to save and to expand the fund of capital—the tools and equipment for production and for better living.”

Paul L. Poirot, Clichés of Socialism

Here is apt discussion of this truism and of how the connection between private property rights and wealth creation plays out in the real world: