WEBVTT NOTE Property and Ownership 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.160 When we consider the nature of man, we think of him as a rational being using his mind 2 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:22.860 to make decisions and reaching decisions that entail his actions as a result of basic drives 3 00:00:22.860 --> 00:00:25.480 and desires that he has. 4 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:33.120 In addition to being a rational being and using his mind, man is also a physical being. In 5 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:39.400 a sense, I suppose this is unfortunate. Many of us would like to be unburdened by the weight 6 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:47.480 of the flesh. Often living in this physical world appalls us because the flesh is heavy 7 00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:53.180 and it makes many demands, and we just wish we didn't have to deal with it, but we do. 8 00:00:53.180 --> 00:01:00.380 So far, as I am aware, I have never yet met a disembodied mind coming down the street, 9 00:01:00.380 --> 00:01:04.900 and every time I have met a body, there has always been a mind with it. So apparently 10 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:10.740 it goes together. We get the body and the mind, and this seems to be the nature of man. 11 00:01:10.740 --> 00:01:17.480 Now if man is to survive, then he is going to have to do certain things with his body. 12 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:22.040 Just as it is important for him to know how to use his mind, it is important for him to 13 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:39.800 I dare say you have studied this elsewhere and that it is a very fascinating subject and perhaps you know far more about it than I do. 14 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:49.720 The thing that concerns me is man as an acting creature that is able to fulfill his desires 15 00:01:49.720 --> 00:01:55.720 and get what he wants out of life, and so I'm going to look at it a little differently 16 00:01:55.720 --> 00:02:05.200 perhaps than the mere biological approach. I'm going to look at man as both a producer 17 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:13.600 and a Consumer. You see, for human beings to live physically, for us to sustain our lives, 18 00:02:13.600 --> 00:02:19.760 there are certain natural laws that we have to obey. As I see it, this is not a matter of ethics 19 00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:25.280 or a matter of morals. It is simply a matter of fact. If I want to stay alive, I am going to have 20 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:31.280 to ingest a certain amount of food. Now, I have certain choices as to the kind of food and whether 21 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:36.960 Whether it will be highly seasoned and served warm or cold, I have a range of choices, but 22 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:43.680 I have no choice here. If I am to survive—and I have a choice on that, I might decide not 23 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:49.680 to—but assuming that I am going to survive, I now confront a natural law. To survive, 24 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:54.520 I must have a certain amount of food. There is no argument here. We don't have to discuss 25 00:02:54.520 --> 00:03:02.200 I am confronted with a natural fact. The same is true with respect to sleep. Man by his 26 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:10.460 nature is a creature who has to pause periodically and relax and just turn himself off and slumber. 27 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:14.160 Now there is a big argument as to how much of this is needed and I don't want to get 28 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:18.640 into the argument because I don't know. I will only say that it is in the nature of 29 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:25.160 of Man, that he will wear himself out very quickly if he doesn't get sufficient rest 30 00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:30.560 and slumber. So this is a part of his nature. Whether he likes it or not, he is bound by 31 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:35.300 these physical laws. Once having made up his mind to stay alive, he is going to have to 32 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:42.480 take some of his life span and spend it asleep. That's the way it is. Additionally, he is 33 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:48.560 going to have to guard himself against disease, contagion of various sorts, exposure. These 34 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:54.280 These are unfortunate things, but these are the prices we pay for living a physical life 35 00:03:54.280 --> 00:04:01.120 in a physical world. Here we are bound by laws over which we have no control. We can 36 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:07.560 make selections. I can decide what kind of shelter I want, what kind of clothing I'm 37 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:13.120 to have, but that I have to have some means of protection, I don't have to decide that. 38 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:17.440 Nature has decided that. If I don't have the protection, I won't make it. 39 00:04:17.440 --> 00:04:24.600 So we are granted certain areas of choice here, but no real ultimate choice—excepting 40 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:31.040 the ultimate choice of shall I stay alive or shall I not?—that we can make, that choice. 41 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:35.000 But having made the choice of staying alive, then there are certain laws that we have to 42 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.200 obey very well. 43 00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:44.400 Now all of the things that we depend on for life can be classed as property. 44 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:46.560 And we deal with property constantly. 45 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:54.340 I would point out that this is not only true of man, it is true of every living sentient 46 00:04:54.340 --> 00:05:02.460 organism. Every organism that is alive stays alive by virtue of his ability to dominate 47 00:05:02.460 --> 00:05:09.740 his immediate environment to some degree. And his immediate environment contains properties 48 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:16.500 that he uses in order to stay alive. Now let me look at this particularly as it relates 49 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:23.620 to Man. I've indicated that man is both a consumer and a producer. Let me take these 50 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:29.320 one at a time. Let's consider the question of consumption. 51 00:05:29.320 --> 00:05:38.820 First of all, man is like any other living organism here. If he doesn't consume, he will 52 00:05:38.820 --> 00:05:48.900 Now, what he consumes is going to be largely up to him, but that he consumes isn't entirely 53 00:05:48.900 --> 00:05:54.380 up to him. If he's going to make it, he's got to consume. From the moment of birth to 54 00:05:54.380 --> 00:06:02.060 the moment of death, he is a consumer. Actually, I think most economists agree on this point 55 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:08.660 that one of the major characteristics we detect in man is the vast variety of things he wants 56 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:18.420 Man is perhaps the most avid consumer of all life forms. We have apparently no limits here. 57 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:24.740 We hear the various economists saying that man's wants are insatiable. He is simply 58 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:31.100 engaged in wanting more and more of everything. He wants to consume all these things to his 59 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:36.820 own advantage. Man is certainly a very skillful and a very avid consumer. 60 00:06:36.820 --> 00:06:42.700 In this sense, I'd like to point out that man here operates almost as though he had 61 00:06:42.700 --> 00:06:51.200 an instinct. He is born hungry. He wants. In fact, he has these drives that are constantly 62 00:06:51.200 --> 00:06:58.500 propelling him. He's a gimme person. He wants things. He needs them. He cries for them. 63 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:06.540 So he is like a very, very sensitive organism that is just starving for all kinds of things, 64 00:07:06.540 --> 00:07:12.020 And he reaches out avidly and attracts these things to himself so he can consume them. 65 00:07:12.020 --> 00:07:14.600 Now this is the nature of man. 66 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:17.740 And you don't really have to teach children to do this. 67 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:19.020 They're going to do it. 68 00:07:19.020 --> 00:07:22.580 What we teach children is how to do it gracefully. 69 00:07:22.580 --> 00:07:26.260 We try not to stop them because to stop them would be to kill them. 70 00:07:26.260 --> 00:07:27.660 They have to consume. 71 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:31.540 But we do say, don't stuff it all into your mouth at once. 72 00:07:31.540 --> 00:07:33.220 Take it a bite at a time. 73 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:39.420 We try to teach them to be nice and gentle and polite and things like this. But assuming 74 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:45.620 the child is normal, you don't have to teach it to consume. It wants to consume. You just 75 00:07:45.620 --> 00:07:50.740 guide it a little. So in this respect, we have very, very powerful 76 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:55.580 drives. Let me point out something else to you about consumption. When we're talking 77 00:07:55.580 --> 00:08:02.580 about consumption, we're talking about something that happens to the individual. The only merit 78 00:08:03.220 --> 00:08:09.220 The merit to consumption is the merit that I get out of consuming something. 79 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:13.140 You may have a nice meal, well, hooray for you, but where's mine? 80 00:08:13.140 --> 00:08:16.620 You have a nice dress or suit of clothes, wonderful. 81 00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:17.620 Where's mine? 82 00:08:17.620 --> 00:08:21.220 I'm not going to get any satisfaction out of what you have, I've got to have something 83 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:22.380 for me. 84 00:08:22.380 --> 00:08:25.120 You have a nice car, well fine, where's mine? 85 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.380 You have a house, bully for you, where's my house? 86 00:08:28.380 --> 00:08:29.740 And so on. 87 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:35.180 Whenever we are thinking in terms of consumption, and we are viewing ourselves as a consumer, 88 00:08:35.180 --> 00:08:41.560 we are very egocentric. We're a little bit like the dog with the bone. That's mine. Get 89 00:08:41.560 --> 00:08:47.560 away from me. Leave me alone. I want to consume this, and I don't need your help. And this 90 00:08:47.560 --> 00:08:51.620 is the way we act as consumers. 91 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:58.980 Now when we get to production, we have an entirely different way of looking at things. 92 00:08:58.980 --> 00:09:06.980 And curiously, the concept of production and the manner in which production is learned 93 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:14.980 takes it completely out of the area of any possible instinctive or instinctoid background. 94 00:09:14.980 --> 00:09:17.060 Production is a learned skill. 95 00:09:17.060 --> 00:09:22.540 You and I may be born hungry, but we are not born with a big drive to get out and put the 96 00:09:22.540 --> 00:09:24.700 pieces together to make something. 97 00:09:24.700 --> 00:09:27.020 We acquire this. 98 00:09:27.020 --> 00:09:31.620 This is something that we may learn from our teachers or we may get part of it from our 99 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:39.220 environment, but fundamentally we become producers because we are such avid consumers. 100 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:44.860 There just isn't enough around for us to get our hands on to consume, and so in order 101 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:50.740 to take up this slack, this lack of things that we want, we figure out ways and means 102 00:09:50.740 --> 00:09:54.700 of putting the pieces together so there will be more to consume. 103 00:09:54.700 --> 00:10:02.060 It is our desire as a consumer that finally impels us to become producers. But here we 104 00:10:02.060 --> 00:10:09.620 have, as I have indicated, an entirely different way of approaching it because when we act 105 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:18.860 as consumers we are very conscious of our dependency on other people. As a consumer 106 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:26.540 I'm very egocentric. I don't need you except to get out of my way. But as a producer, I need you. 107 00:10:27.660 --> 00:10:35.500 In fact, I need you in inverse ratio to our similarities. The more like me you are, 108 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:43.580 the less I need you. The more different you are, the more I've got to depend on you. Now, obviously, 109 00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:49.980 I do a lot of talking for a living. Supposing you did the same kind of talking. Well, believe 110 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:54.700 me then, I don't need you because you're just my competitor and if you weren't around I'd like it 111 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:59.260 better. But the reason I like to have you around is because you can do something I don't do, 112 00:10:59.900 --> 00:11:07.100 you see. I don't know what it is, but I've got to have somebody around that can plant the potatoes 113 00:11:07.100 --> 00:11:11.740 and make the automobiles and manufacture the typewriters and prepare the paper that I'm going to 114 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:18.740 I'm going to put in my typewriter and prepare these microphones and equipment and all the other stuff that I've got to use. 115 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:23.740 I can't do that. I don't know how to do it. I'm over my head the minute I get into something of this sort. 116 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:30.740 I use my jaws and talk. So the more different you are, the more I value you. 117 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:38.740 So here when we get into the area of production, I've got to look around and find people who can do things I can't do. 118 00:11:38.740 --> 00:11:44.740 and the more things they can do that I can't do, the more I value them. 119 00:11:44.740 --> 00:11:53.740 Now, isn't this odd? Because basically, if they're different from me, I tend to distrust them. 120 00:11:53.740 --> 00:11:59.740 You see, I'm so caught up with the idea of freedom that when I'm thinking in terms of freedom, 121 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:04.740 I would like to have everybody free that's like me and anybody that's different. 122 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:10.240 I don't know whether he ought to be free or not, because if he's different, then he's a danger to me. 123 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:17.240 But now when we're talking in terms of production, he jolly well better be different from me, otherwise I don't need him. 124 00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:22.740 I need him because he's different, because he can do the things that are necessary. 125 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:28.740 And this shows how important freedom is in a productive context. 126 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:42.740 Because if we're going to produce, we've got to be free to produce, and yet we tend not to think of producers that way, we tend to think of them in another way, and that inhibits production. 127 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:57.740 So we have some problems here in this area of production. We've got to correct our thinking here if we're going to maximize human well-being and get to the kind of social arrangement that will tend to minimize frustration and aggression 128 00:12:57.740 --> 00:13:03.900 and lead us toward what we hope would be a more moral, a happier, a more satisfying world. 129 00:13:03.900 --> 00:13:10.460 And that's what we want to do. So we have these differences here. In other words, when I'm acting 130 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:16.620 as a consumer, I'm very self-centered, very interested in what's going to happen to me 131 00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:23.420 and what am I going to get out of it. But when I'm going to produce something, then I would like to 132 00:13:23.420 --> 00:13:28.780 to have you come in and work with me so we can exchange, so I don't have to do all 133 00:13:28.780 --> 00:13:29.780 the work. 134 00:13:29.780 --> 00:13:33.400 I know I've talked to some people who say, well, now, wait a minute. 135 00:13:33.400 --> 00:13:36.640 When it comes to production, you really don't have to have cooperation. 136 00:13:36.640 --> 00:13:41.620 And then they usually tell me about the prototype of the early caveman who could sit on the 137 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:48.520 ledge in front of his cave and chip out Flint arrow points, and he didn't need any help. 138 00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:55.440 And I usually point out that this atypical caveman, although he's a very good man at 139 00:13:55.440 --> 00:14:01.960 chipping out arrow points, does need help, even under such primitive conditions. Because 140 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:09.720 if he's going to acquire proficiency as a flint point maker, he's going to have to have 141 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:15.920 somebody else doing his hunting for him. Because if he's going to devote his time and attention 142 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:21.720 to knocking out these flint points. He's going to get awfully hungry. Somebody else 143 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:26.540 is going to have to be doing something else while he's doing that. Otherwise he's going 144 00:14:26.540 --> 00:14:31.960 to confine himself to making half a dozen, fitting them onto shafts, and then going out 145 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:37.260 and doing his own hunting. Well, then he isn't going to be a flint arrow point maker. He's 146 00:14:37.260 --> 00:14:41.360 going to just be a jack of all trades. He's going to have to be. 147 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:48.760 Now what we found about men is that when they have a division of labor, it works out better. 148 00:14:48.760 --> 00:14:55.520 And here we have Og, who can sit in front of his cave and chip out flint points and 149 00:14:55.520 --> 00:15:05.120 that's all he has to do because Og is out hunting and Ogpoo, or whoever, is out making 150 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:11.320 bows and somebody else is out curing the meat and somebody else is figuring out a way to 151 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:17.960 take care of the hides, and you've got all these people engaged in special chores, and then they 152 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:25.160 exchange with one another, and they're all better off. Because each one now has the benefit of the 153 00:15:25.160 --> 00:15:30.920 skills of the other party, and they can really concentrate in their own area and really become 154 00:15:30.920 --> 00:15:36.760 skillful in that one area, and thus everybody would like to exchange with them because they 155 00:15:36.760 --> 00:15:40.960 Because they can do that one chore better than any of the other people. 156 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:46.120 And this is the way we have learned to get along in the world beginning from very primitive 157 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:47.120 times. 158 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:51.920 We discovered the viability of division of labor. 159 00:15:51.920 --> 00:15:57.360 So we start in and we do what we have to do because we figured out how to get along with 160 00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:58.960 the other fellow. 161 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:04.520 We depend on him primarily because he does things we can't do. 162 00:16:04.520 --> 00:16:17.520 That's the nature of production. Production is a cooperative endeavor, even in primitive times, in a time such as our own, with a dynamic, volatile economy, such as the one we have. 163 00:16:17.520 --> 00:16:33.520 We have one where we're so completely interdependent that all you have to have is something like a blown fuse in New York, and the city goes black for three days and nobody can do anything. 164 00:16:33.520 --> 00:16:39.020 Because everybody is dependent on other people who are doing something that they don't know how to do. 165 00:16:39.020 --> 00:16:49.520 So the more involved the economy becomes, the more we tend to interrelate, the more dependent we are on other people and their specialties. 166 00:16:49.520 --> 00:16:52.520 And that's what I mean by production. 167 00:16:52.520 --> 00:17:01.520 Production is an area of cooperation, and consumption is an area of individuality. 168 00:17:01.520 --> 00:17:06.420 And I wouldn't be at all surprised if we really knew all the facts in the matter. 169 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:14.040 But what that little characteristic here is perhaps at the very root of almost all the 170 00:17:14.040 --> 00:17:16.660 psychological problems we have. 171 00:17:16.660 --> 00:17:25.860 Because this characteristic causes us to behave in widely varied patterns of behavior and 172 00:17:25.860 --> 00:17:30.740 we don't always know exactly which pattern of behavior to have. 173 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:39.680 Now if we were simply chimpanzees or lions or some other mammal or life form, we wouldn't 174 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:45.280 have that psychological conflict. We wouldn't have these intellectual dilemmas that confront 175 00:17:45.280 --> 00:17:53.520 us as human beings. You see, in my relationship to you, I have a problem. If my relationship 176 00:17:53.520 --> 00:17:58.820 with you is productive, then I want to work very closely with you. So I'm saying, as 177 00:17:58.820 --> 00:18:03.460 As a producer, fine, come closer to me, let me learn what you do, I want you to learn 178 00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:08.860 what I do, so we can exchange and mutually benefit. But when I'm thinking as a consumer, 179 00:18:08.860 --> 00:18:14.220 I'm saying, get away, leave me alone, I don't need you. So I'm engaged constantly in saying, 180 00:18:14.220 --> 00:18:18.660 get away, closer, get away, closer, get away, closer. Now that can drive a man out of his 181 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:23.820 mind, because he doesn't know just which to do at which time. 182 00:18:23.820 --> 00:18:28.780 Here's where we get into trouble. You see, if we're really going to maximize human well-being 183 00:18:58.780 --> 00:19:06.880 non-molestation in which the individual is free to consume and at the same time can voluntarily 184 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:14.340 win the support he needs in order to produce. It's got to be done within a context of freedom 185 00:19:14.340 --> 00:19:20.300 if we're going to maximize the whole thing. And that's what we're trying to work out. 186 00:19:20.300 --> 00:19:27.180 So you can see the peculiarities here. Now man, of course, is the only species that tends 187 00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:33.180 Sometimes they have nervous breakdowns, so far as we know, and ends up sometimes in the 188 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:38.420 booby-hatch. And I suppose it comes right out of this thing, that we just don't know 189 00:19:38.420 --> 00:19:44.540 quite how to behave with each other, because some of the time when we ought to be saying, 190 00:19:44.540 --> 00:19:49.680 gee, I'm glad to see you, come in and help me produce, instead we are thinking as consumers 191 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:53.160 and we're engaged in trying to drive the other fellow away, the very fellow we need 192 00:19:53.160 --> 00:20:00.240 to Depend on. Now, let me show you what this leads to. We tend to try to pass laws in order 193 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:06.400 to help us. That's why laws are passed. We go to the government and we say, you know, 194 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:11.660 the consumers aren't getting a square break here. They're not getting a square deal. 195 00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:17.400 They need a break. They need something done because somebody's taking advantage of them. 196 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:22.340 And you know what that leads to? This leads to the idea that consumers are a special group 197 00:20:22.340 --> 00:20:29.400 You see, the cost of a place is the cost of a group of people over here, and producers are another group of people. 198 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:33.280 But the funny thing is, we're both in both places. 199 00:20:33.280 --> 00:20:37.400 All of us are both consumers and producers. 200 00:20:37.420 --> 00:20:45.840 So if we take and pass laws to benefit consumers, at the expense of producers, we're not helping anybody. 201 00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:52.200 We may be helping ourselves as consumers, but we're injuring ourselves as producers, because we're producers too. 202 00:20:52.200 --> 00:21:01.360 We're just dislocating the natural order in an effort to benefit ourselves during certain 203 00:21:01.360 --> 00:21:05.080 hours, but we'll end up hurting ourselves during other hours. 204 00:21:05.080 --> 00:21:06.080 Now where's the benefit? 205 00:21:06.080 --> 00:21:08.080 There isn't any. 206 00:21:08.080 --> 00:21:12.240 Or if you do it in reverse, let's say the producers are having a tough time. 207 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:15.200 So let's pass a law to help producers. 208 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:16.200 Why? 209 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:20.220 That's going to hurt us as consumers, and we're consumers too. 210 00:21:20.220 --> 00:21:26.260 So the minute you try to distort the natural order of working together, you may create 211 00:21:26.260 --> 00:21:31.580 a benefit to a particular person at a specific time, but then you'll have to pay for that 212 00:21:31.580 --> 00:21:37.020 benefit later on in the day. Well, what's the advantage? There's no advantage at all. 213 00:21:37.020 --> 00:21:44.380 We simply are engaged then in distorting the natural order one way or another for a benefit 214 00:21:44.380 --> 00:21:50.020 that in the end we're going to have to pay for. Well, that's a little idiotic, especially 215 00:21:50.020 --> 00:21:56.500 Only when you realize that every one of these distortions ends up costing everybody something, 216 00:21:56.500 --> 00:22:03.060 the only real benefit accrues to the fellow who is passing the law. There is no particular 217 00:22:03.060 --> 00:22:10.020 point in that. He is non-productive in the first place. So we take the productive people 218 00:22:10.020 --> 00:22:15.400 every place else and we assess them in order to make things better for them, and the only 219 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:19.020 fellow that benefits is the non-productive person who sits over there and directs them 220 00:22:19.020 --> 00:22:49.020 Let's take a look at property itself. You know, in the early days when people were thinking about property, they looked at it as 221 00:22:49.020 --> 00:22:53.980 as pioneers do in any new intellectual area that comes along, and they tended to oversimplify. 222 00:22:53.980 --> 00:22:59.620 I think this is characteristic of all people exploring a new intellectual area. They tend 223 00:22:59.620 --> 00:23:04.860 to simplify. How could they see everything? No one sees it all now. So obviously, they 224 00:23:04.860 --> 00:23:10.220 would simplify. And what they tended to do at that time was to confuse the word property 225 00:23:10.220 --> 00:23:16.560 with the word ownership. In fact, they assumed that if something was a property, it must 226 00:23:16.560 --> 00:23:36.920 be Owned. Property is the item to be owned. Ownership is the act of owning. It is a relationship 227 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:45.680 between an owner and an item of property. Property can exist in a condition where it 228 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:53.640 It is owned, but it can also exist in a condition where it is unowned, and, and quite frequently, 229 00:23:53.640 --> 00:24:00.160 it can exist and does exist in a condition where there is a conflict over who owns it, 230 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:05.880 or whether or not it is owned, or maybe even what it is. So we are very good at having 231 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:13.400 conflicts, but we can have property in any one of three situations—owned, unowned, 232 00:24:13.400 --> 00:24:15.000 or in a State of Conflict. 233 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:18.760 Now, what do we mean by property? 234 00:24:18.760 --> 00:24:20.800 Let me show you how this was confused. 235 00:24:20.800 --> 00:24:25.640 Many of the classical economists, for instance, when they began dealing with property, they 236 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:31.080 used the word property to mean, as I say, both property and ownership, which, for instance, 237 00:24:31.080 --> 00:24:33.200 led to the writings of Karl Marx. 238 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.480 You know, Marx was inspired by the classical economists. 239 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:41.400 He was profoundly influenced, in fact, by a man named David Ricardo. 240 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:48.340 And so it appears in Marx's Communist Manifesto and some of his other writings that the purpose 241 00:24:48.340 --> 00:24:55.380 of his movement was to abolish private property. Now this created the impression in the minds 242 00:24:55.380 --> 00:25:01.040 of people who didn't understand the context that Marx's objective was to burn up all 243 00:25:01.040 --> 00:25:05.860 the property in the world because he said he wanted to abolish private property. And 244 00:25:05.860 --> 00:25:10.640 that isn't what he meant. What he meant was he wanted to abolish private ownership of 245 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:16.400 of Property, because he thought that by so doing there would be more property available 246 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:21.140 for everybody. Now I think he's wrong on this, but the point is we have to understand 247 00:25:21.140 --> 00:25:27.420 what is meant here. And so when you read the early classicists and get the idea that when 248 00:25:27.420 --> 00:25:34.260 they talk about property and they talk about abolishing it, they're not mad men out with 249 00:25:34.260 --> 00:25:39.360 a torch. They're thinking in terms of ownership, although they don't use the word, they're 250 00:25:39.360 --> 00:25:43.420 They're talking in terms of ownership, but they call it property. 251 00:25:43.420 --> 00:25:48.520 So it's important that you distinguish here between property, the item to be owned, and 252 00:25:48.520 --> 00:25:54.440 ownership, which is the act of or the relationship involved in owning. 253 00:25:54.440 --> 00:25:55.440 Very well. 254 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:59.120 Now what are the classes of property that can be owned? 255 00:25:59.120 --> 00:26:04.660 The very first property that we are aware of is the property of the person. 256 00:26:04.660 --> 00:26:06.960 Each person owns himself. 257 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:13.480 You are the owner of you. You exercise dominion over yourself. You have control over yourself. 258 00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:20.200 You have a definite boundary. You don't own all people. You just own you, and that's it. 259 00:26:20.200 --> 00:26:26.880 So all of the attributes of you are your property, your time, your energy, your skills. Whatever 260 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:31.960 it is that makes up you, that's yours. You own you. 261 00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:39.960 Now, all additional property of any kind or description is simply viewed as an extension 262 00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:47.200 of your ownership of your person. Whatever else you own, the concept is that you take 263 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:53.800 the control that you have over yourself, over your person, and you simply extend it into 264 00:26:53.800 --> 00:27:00.120 this additional property, whatever it may be. If you have a dress or a suit of clothes, 265 00:27:00.120 --> 00:27:07.360 If you have an automobile, a house, whatever it may be, your ownership of that is presumed 266 00:27:07.360 --> 00:27:14.840 to be merely an extension of your ownership of yourself, of your person, very well. 267 00:27:14.840 --> 00:27:22.040 So that is your basic property, the property of the person and all of the attributes thereto. 268 00:27:22.040 --> 00:27:28.340 Now the next property that we have something to do with would be the property of natural 269 00:27:28.340 --> 00:27:33.220 Natural Resources, the world itself is a great ball of natural resources, and all of these 270 00:27:33.220 --> 00:27:39.620 things in the world can be owned. The land, the water, the soils, the minerals, the minerals, 271 00:27:39.620 --> 00:27:44.960 the growing things, the animals, everything in the world that is of the order of nature, 272 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:47.980 this can be owned, and that's one type of property. 273 00:27:47.980 --> 00:27:51.900 Then there's what we could call the man-made order. These are things that men have put 274 00:27:51.900 --> 00:28:09.380 In addition, there could be special types of properties we could call contracts, which 275 00:28:09.380 --> 00:28:15.020 are types of property that we have that we've created between us. And then there could be 276 00:28:15.020 --> 00:28:23.740 intangible properties such as vapors, gases, odors, formula, things of this sort. All of 277 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:28.460 these things comprise property. All of them are subject to ownership and we'll have to 278 00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:33.300 take and discuss that at a later time. It's a very interesting area and we'll be getting 279 00:28:33.300 --> 00:28:35.300 into it more deeply. Thanks very much.