RE: OWNERSHIP: Toward a Social Credit "Labor Theory of Property"??

["Ed Dodson" <ejdodson@comcast.net>]

Ed Dodson responding...
John Medaille wrote (7/5):

>Ed Dodson here:
>The important historical event is when formerly-migrating societies began
to
>settle down in a fixed location. ...

JOHN MEDAILLE:
I don't think that migration has much to do with it. Even the semi-nomadic
tribes have the same questions of allocation for as long as they occupy one
spot. Further, we have any number of examples of "primitive" and tribal
peoples, and out notions of private property simply do not apply. We can
actually see early notions codified in the Sabbath codes of the Old
Testament, where land cannot be alienated from the tribe, not even for the
King (e.g., Nabooth's vineyard.) We can define a trajectory that all
societies seem to follow: as power becomes more concentrated, property
becomes less communal and more "private." It would be an interesting
chicken-and-egg question is see whether it is the concentration of land
that leads to concentration of power, or vice-versa.

ED DODSON:
Migrating societies tended to have fewer "things" except those that can be
moved or easily recreated if left behind.

Small tribal groups were not in a position to defend much territory,
although at some point in history many learned the arts of hortculture and
the raising of domesticated animals. However, the establishment of permanent
or semi-permanent villages required more defined rules concerning what was
individual versus community property. The historical literature on the
subject confirms that most tribal societies held to communitarian values
regarding property until the stage where hierarchy became firmly
established. When the warrior-protector group begins to create its own
"secret society" within the tribe, we begin to see a transition to a
warrior-oppressor structure at the top, assisted often by the
knowledge-bearers become priestcraft. The outcome? Claims on whatever wealth
produced far above what is warranted by the services these two non-producer
groups provide. This is how I would describe the "trajectory" to which you
allude.



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