Although rhetoric is traditionally viewed through its relationships with law, politics, philosophy, and religion, other disciplines, such as economics, also shape contemporary rhetorics, and these rhetorics influence current writing pedagogies. "Product" and "process" theories of composition can be examined in light of the rhetoric of "possessive individualism"--the view that the right to possession is the keystone of human freedom. In the "product" approach to composition, students rely on their own abilities and application for success (i.e. good grades). Because ownership is linked to honor or disgrace in possessive individualism, grades define students, and their relationships to the meaning of their writing is undermined. "Process" approaches seek to eliminate this aspect of the "product" approach by inviting students to join the discourse community of the composition classroom as equal members. But the "process" approach also views students as individual creators of discourse, ultimately accountable for the success or failure of their texts. Grades are still something that students finally "get," and are statements of individual worth. By endorsing students' rights to "get" grades rather than their need to develop critical, social consciousness, both approaches support the promise of upward mobility for possessive individualists at a time when economic realities suggest that upward mobility is a myth. Although educators are beginning to recognize how meaning is produced in social processes, composition curricula continue to protect the individual right to possess meaning. (MM)