24. Property is Acknowledgement.

Property is Acknowledgement.
Bob Komives
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I have a complaint and a confession. Complaint: when we talk about "private property rights," we show that we do not know what we talk about. Confession: I am guilty of having used this puffed up phrase. I hope I have cured myself. Let me try to cure you.

Why does the phrase, "private property rights" show ignorance? That term is twice redundant --long-winded. Property is not land, it is not a book. Property is a right to be private, to priváte, to deprive others of access and use. So, to speak of "private property," of "property rights," or of "private property rights" is to speak only of property. If we can argue without this redundancy perhaps we will be short-winded. Perhaps we will better understand property.

Ah, you may say, but what about "public property," the opposite of private property? It is no opposite, but rather an oxymoron. If you insist on using the term, its only meaning can be "non-property"--nobody has the right to restrict our access and use. A sunset is beautiful public property; better, it is a "public good" in the "public domain." Your county land fill is not public property; it is county property. The county has rights over access and use of the land fill as would an individual owner.

Are these rights absolute? Whether held by you or the county, property is within a higher domain, a pre-eminent domain, an eminent domain. "Eminent domain," as we use the term in U.S. America, includes the obligation by government to pay justly for property, but it is also a self-evident declaration that property is a guest within the higher domain of society. Complaint over!

We can discuss individual wealth because individuals can control and trade goods and services. However, this power to control and trade is always delegated by a larger group. Property is group acknowledgment that an individual can restrict access to something--a by-group-acknowledged right to be private, to priváte, to deprive others of access and use.

Acknowledgment may be given grudgingly to someone who has taken by force; property is not necessarily untainted. If the group refuses to acknowledge ownership, and the possessor must continually defend her possessions against others, she has booty--not property. She cannot freely share, trade, sell, give, or lend her booty. If the group were to choose to acknowledge her possessions as property she could take them to the marketplace or leave them at home and expect community assistance if someone tries to steal them.

The marketplace is a group sanctioned center of activity. We can say that people go there to trade property. In a marketplace, operating under rules established by the group, people trade group-acknowledged rights of restricted access. An individual restricts access to her possessions until someone else gives her the right to restrict access to items that she believes to be at least of equal value. When those rights are exchanged, property is exchanged. The exchange is complete when society acknowledges that property has changed hands.

:: Bob Komives, Fort Collins © 2006 :: Plum Local IV :: 24. Property is Acknowledgement. ::
With attribution these words may be freely shared, but permission
is required if quoted in an item for sale or rent

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