Re: If there was no possession.
 

The Pilgrims experimented with communism when they first landed. However, some guys got lazy and didn't do anything. That was the end of that [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: If there was no possession.
 

Resources would be wasted because no one would have the proper incentive to put them to a more efficient use.

Re: If there was no possession.
 

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Surely there has to have been a society at some point that didn't have possession but functioned successfully.

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Nope. Property rights were recognized (not legally, but morally) even before our ancestors were fully human. Every human society has had the concepts of "mine" and "his" and "ours," etc.

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I think some hunter-gatherers are still around which do not have personal property rights. They have a concept of a "tribe's" possessions however which still provides incentive. I'm not positive, but I wouldn't rule out the lack of property rights entirely in human history.

-SmileyEH

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You'd be more or less correct... the best evidence that a sociopolitical system is firmly entrenched is when its average person believes that its fundamental characteristics are natural and always have been. The idea that exclusive property rights predate language itself is ridiculous (and also entirely unprovable... however there exist societies which do disprove it).

NT

Re: If there was no possession.
 

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Aren't most if not all of the problems in the world almost directly related to money?

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No, they're related to disputes over land, goods, or ideas, money being the fundamental trading unit for many of these items. You don't see Arabs blowing themselves up in train stations over wads of cash. Eliminating money would merely cause us to go back to fighting over raw goods and other items more explicitly.

NT

Re: If there was no possession.
 

Property rights have to be enforced by violence or threat of violence.
What if there was no such thing as violence?
For example, you kill someone, you drop dead on the spot, you hurt someone you feel the same pain. What would happen to possessions and property rights if violence did not exist?

Re: If there was no possession.
 

Even animals mark their territory, defend their young, etc... Although they do not hvae property rights, they at least have de facto property rights. Of course, those rights are often determined by the strongest.