A rational person refrains from trying to expropriate values by force because such action would ultimately be destructive to his or her own life. First, such aggression would be incompatible with others' needs for independence and would therefore negate all the benefits that one obtains from peaceful association with others. As our investigation of interventionism in Section 4 made clear, the initiation of force ultimately leads to the destruction of productivity, diminishing the lives of those who wield that force as well as its immediate victims.

Furthermore, aggression—that is, the initiation of force—conflicts with the virtues we discussed in Subsection 3.10. For instance, the virtue of justice (pp. 3.10:19-34) requires that we permit others to enjoy the fruits—whether sweet or bitter—of their own actions. Clearly, we cannot practice this virtue consistently unless we allow other human beings the full use of those means and ends that they have produced by their own actions, that is, their property, as the concept was developed in pp. 4.5:13-15. To initiate force against them, of course, would by definition interfere with their peaceful enjoyment of those earned values. Because justice and the other virtues are fundamental to our lives and well-being and in particular to our self-esteem, it is imperative that we refrain from aggression against others.