Word of The Day – Private Property

Private property – the illusion that property is not part of nature

Definition:  Land that is not owned by the government or dedicated to public use. (Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary)

How shocking it is to drive through a part of a country that’s been devastated by catastrophes and see the weeds growing three feet tall through cracks in buildings that once were filled with people!

Examples

(1) Ghost towns of the American West

(2) The upper peninsula of Michigan in the 1980s

(3) Chernobyl

Private property is erroneously contrasted with state, community, and government property. State, community and government property is a form of stewardship over the commons on behalf of the people who occupy the commons. Private property (as well as “personal” property) should actually be contrasted with the commons.

Because private property is deemed separate from nature, it is frequently the cause of negative externalities.  Usually it is the commons, i.e., nature and/or taxpayers, that bear the costs of dealing with those externalities.

Antonymns: nature; commons

Copyright © 2011 Nancy K. Humphreys