Economic Foundations
Without a strong concept of property rights, economic systems would function very differently. Marxists propose to socialize the private ownership over the means of production, but other economists believe that abandoning the concept of property would lead to a form of socialist chaos. The concept has a history, and it is a cornerstone of our current economic system. It was even extended to "intellectual property rights," and so on.
What is property?
The concept of property is not simple, and in a world that becomes more and more fluid, it is harder and harder to define who owns what. The following points are relevant:
Property is a right, it can be viewed as a right, or system of rights.
Property gets acquired originally through work, and taking over originally free resources.
It is a relationship of control that cannot be separated from power and violence.
It requires the state to guarantee it.
The primary purpose of the state itself can be considered to be the defense of property rights.
Property rights is a form of defining freedom.
Ownership is not only a right, it is also a responsibility. The social responsibility of ownership is subject to political decisions.
The purpose of property is enjoyment; Why else would one want to control material resources?
Property is therefore linked to one's needs. It also raises the question of our relationship to enjoyment.
We expanded the definition of property to non-physical things, like ideas, inventions, patents, and even rights. Ownership is a very flexible concept.
The owner can be one person, a group, or a legal organization, like a company. It can even be a whole state.
Property rights over people? The negative example is slavery. What about services? Can they be treated equivalent to objects? Is not an object only the result of other people's work? Think of a newspaper, designer clothes, or buying a business, like a school, or retirement home.
Is property a crime?
Market systems could not function if they were not based on a strong definition of property rights. Some philosophers argue that the right to property is a natural right, and the state derives its justification from defending this right (John Locke.) Other argue that the invention of property is the beginning of nothing but trouble, because it leads to inequality and deep alienation (Rousseau.)
The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said “This is mine,” and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Discourse on Inequality
Reading Material: Property and Ownership, Stanford Encyclopedia.