communal property

dlawbailey dlawbailey at netzero.net
Wed Apr 10 17:44:12 PDT 2002


To develop a just and practical path to communism, people must think seriously about the evolution of property right. It's very well to think we can throw it all out and start over, but this is impractical at best and, at worst, will doom the movement. It is not enough to say that property will be communal. One must define the responsibilities that communal property implies. It seems clear to me that communal property implies more, not less, definition of ethics, responsibilities and forbidden behavior - rules, laws by any other name.

Cooperative shops and apartment buildings, even e-mail lists, suggest this greater need for defined responsibility by overwhelming evidence. Any large, cooperative group quickly develops a body of law of its own or flies apart and communism proposes the largest cooperative group imaginable.

Again, if you can answer, please tell me what happens when someone wrecks a piece of communal property through carelessness or malevolence. Communism promises abundance, but not infinite abundance. Hence, there will be such things as loss and wrongful loss. Who is responsible for compensating the community for a wrongful loss and how, under communism, do we decide?

I think you'll find that these are necessarily legal questions.



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