81 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

There is no inherent need for ownership or property. That's just a capitalist game.

Expand full comment
samghjk's avatar

It gives freedom vs depending on a landlord who can take away as much of your income as he pleases, along with other "essential" needs all controlled by corporations

Expand full comment
Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

You missed the point. If the private property relation doesn't exist, corporations and elites, being made of property, CAN'T exist because the conditions for their existence don't hold.

Expand full comment
samghjk's avatar

I grew up in the system where the private property relation did not exist and everyone lived in government-owned housing. It's definitely better than being hostage to a private landlord, but still, nothing beats actually owning your dwelling

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Dec 17, 2022Edited
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
samghjk's avatar

Whatever the system, if you don't own it, you are dependant on someone, be it a landlord or government. Government can restrict where you can live, what kind of housing, it can deprive you of it whenever it sees fit (building a new road or new residential block), it can limit how much land you can own, etc, etc. So no, ownership is the only way to be free (not without its downsides, but better than anything else)

Expand full comment
GreaterIsrahell's avatar

Does that mean you'll be happy with owning nothing?

Expand full comment
Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

As long as elites don't own anything either, what's to be sad about?

First, define "own". Like "marriage", the definition has shifted over time to whatever family order best suits the state's need to reproduce itself. In our era, capitalist ideology denies the very possibility of a distinction between personal property (one's possessions) and private property (one's exclusive rights over others), but we don't have to accept that conceit. No critic of capitalism is seriously objecting to personal property like toothbrushes and houses.

Expand full comment