Property Law

Discussion

David Bollier:

"Traditional property law is based on a woefully obsolete worldview and antiquated economic premises about human beings and social and ecological realities. It sees all of these expansions of property law as a form of wealth creation – when in fact it often amounts to wealth destruction (monetizing nature), redistribution from the have-nots to the haves, or a transformation of the intrinsic use-value of something into exchange-value (price). It presumes that value is only created by individuals trucking and bartering in the marketplace, and the Invisible Hand does its magic.

Property law does not generally acknowledge the actual value generated by social collaborations, by complex natural systems and by inherited knowledge and culture. It is blind to non-economic relationships such as gift economies, informal relationships, social communities and care work. You could say that property law generally simply does not recognize the commons and its significant role in generating value." (http://bollier.org/blog/property-rights-inequality-and-commons)