Where does it come from?
What are the different types, intellectual, physical, etc.?
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Ideas on Property
Where does it come from?
What are the different types, intellectual, physical, etc.?
Here’s my take, especially influenced by Mises and Hoppe and my own reading in evolutionary anthropology.
Where does property come from?
Property comes from three facts about our universe:
1. Stuff is not infinite. With the exception of some effectively-infinite goods like oxygen and sunlight, the things people want are not infinite. There are only so many apples, hamburgers, iPads, etc. in the world at a given time.
Now, humans could just devolve into a horrific war of all against all to seize control of the apples and hamburgers and iPads, but that doesn’t happen because of fact #2.
2. Humans are predisposed to cooperate with each other. We are capable of understanding that we can get more of what we want if we cooperate with each other. And also, humans just plain like other humans (not all of them, but we like our kids and some of our relatives and we often just want strangers to think we are cool and handsome and smart). So, in short, we know that we can cooperate to avoid the war of all against all over the scarce stuff in the world.
But human cooperation is limited and can never attain anything truly collective like idealized communism because of fact #3.
3. Each human has his or her own mind, and no two individuals will ever agree about absolutely everything. Therefore, there will ALWAYS be disagreements on what to do with the apples and hamburgers and iPads.
So, humans want to cooperate, but cannot function in a hive-mind collective. How can we get to cooperation among unique individuals?
Property is the solution. It’s an essential social invention that allows us to agree that, in the case of a disagreement between you and me over who should eat this delicious apple, we want immediately resort to bloodshed. Instead, one of us (the owner), gets to decide.
Note: all human societies have property. Some commie anthropologists tried (and mostly succeeded) to convince Westerners in the 20th century that certain non-Western cultures do not have property. That is wrong, wrong, wrong. See my article here: “Ayn Rand, Pygmies, and Collectivism.”
Property is the solution that allows for cooperation among unique individuals in a universe where stuff is not infinite. It is an essential component of ALL human societies. Without it, we would all promptly die of violence or slowly die of starvation and exposure.
Now, the trouble with “intellectual property” is that, for all intents and purposes, an idea or a song or story IS infinite. If I record a song, you can copy it without taking the song away from me. There is no effective limit on the total numbers of copies of my song. There is therefore no necessary conflict between you and me as to what should happen with that song, even if we disagree about it. So the concept of property does not really apply to the things called “intellectual property.”
What are some differences between owning physical stuff like bubble gum and soil, vs owning space? It is finite, unlike intellectual property, but doesn’t it carry with it the notion of owning everything on it, essentially indistinguishable from a state?
A rate of change for life on Earth seems to be rising relative to linear time seen as days, years, etc. Maybe a billion years ago, the planet’s geology was morphing gradually, new life forms were born, and many vanished as biology adapted and grew more complex. As in markets, there’s creative destruction in natural order. Evidence may suggest far more total change of this type over any 100M years than 1M, the way of life for single creatures remaining static over lifespans. A T-Rex’s experience was very similar to its great-great-great-grandparents’. We enter. In a tiny cosmic epoch, caves, camels, and copper become castles, cars, and crypto-currency.
How?
Evolve intellectually, gather data, technologically manipulate resources, and advance new ideas. Ownership is an idea, emanating not from aspects inherent to the physical realm, but mental notions generated through socialization. If I have undisputed claim of a tomato I grew, none seeking to take it from me, and then I willfully hand it to you, making clear with language, spoken, written, or elsewise, that I give you all rights to it, and you accept, the food doesn’t glow and bind to your soul. It’s a thing in a spot.
As nomads, land isn’t scarce. With spare space and few of us, tribes who meet are safest following certain rules of engagement. Trade and division of labor being productive, our best route is always alliance. Hostile others are hazards to avoid or exploit. If they’re strong, fighting is a dangerous last resort, used to defend the group. If they’re weak and won’t join forces, we can leave or loot. Threatened by powerful foes, resource maximization is crucial for tribe-family survival. We weigh estimated costs of war against expected spoils, and take risks.
Cultivating voluntary relationships helps markets flourish, and we’ve no use for those who would do us harm or isolate us economically. An attack against person or property of a member diminishes our ability to thrive, so all others are competitors for finite stuff. This style of liberation from the state of nature seems to incorporate property rights emanating from what the group considers its own, within which individual property rights are established and used for betterment of all.
