From: Thomas McCabe (pphysics141@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 17 2008 - 08:48:51 MDT
On 4/17/08, mwaser@cox.net <mwaser@cox.net> wrote:
> Why should anyone *own* various parts of the moon? If you aren't using it, why should you be able to hog it and insist that others pay you for the right to use it?
>
> Just because we've always done things like this in the past doesn't make it right for the future. Ownership makes a lot of sense in conditions of scarcity but I strongly doubt that it is rational in conditions of plenty -- and in intermediate conditions, like those of today, I think that the concept of private property (and the necessity that everyone *must* work) is actually getting in the way of moving towards a condition of plenty (and fairness and happiness).
>
> Mark
>
Haven't we shown, through numerous experiments on a huge scale, that
communism doesn't work? All of human civilization was built by
incentives- people build things because it's better to build them than
to not build them. Once you abolish private property, you destroy all
of those incentives, because everyone can just take whatever it is
that you've built. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons.
-- - Tom http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/tom
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