> Most property that humans use is created by humans, and we can always
> create more. There is a finite amount of accessible natural resources on
> Earth, but there is plenty to provide all humans with a very comfortable
> living situation, with current technology. Because humans generally view
> most other humans as enemies, they refuse to cooperate with each other to
> provide a comfortable situation for all involved. This perpetual war
> among most humans is the source of most human problems.
>
> "Property rights" is a good solution when people have little respect for
> each other and would routinely deprive each other of the basic
> necessities for living. But the concept of property rights does little
> to heal the underlying hostility among humans. If people were not so
> hostile towards each other, there would be no need for "property rights".
Believe me, I am not as blindly dismissive of your ideas as you might imagine--but I still think you're so far from reality here that it's in a different zip code. Your assumption that there exists "enough" physical resources for all humans rests on the faulty notion that there is such a thing as "enough", or such a thing as a "comfortable" standard of living. No such thing exists. The human will is infinite, and the resources to serve that will are finite. I "hoard" resources to my will not because I begrudge others their will, but simply because I value my own, and the two inevitably conflict. I genuinely want every human on the planet to be wealthy beyond their dreams, and every human /will/ be wealthy beyond the dreams of /today/'s humans tomorrow. But when that happens, the infinite desires of all humans will ensure that some will want more, and more, and more. That's a good thing. If our resources ever become "enough" to satisfy our wills, then our wills are too limited.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC