[GJM] Faith based commons for World Unity and Democratic Global Governance (Norman Kurland)

[chris cook]

Dear Norm

>I have difficulty understanding Marguerite's assertion that
<snip>

>take the road toward aberrancy and create the pathology of dissociation 
>from which most of >society suffers today."
>
>What follows from Marguerite's position is that there has never been and 
>can never be a prohibition against stealing.  If there can be no private 
>ownership of property, then no one can ever steal anything from another.  I 
>have always thought that if someone takes through the use of force or 
>stealth everything that another has produced through their work, that this 
>is the functional equivalent of slavery, i.e., someone owns another's body 
>when they take one of the basic attributes of ownership, the fruits of what 
>one owns.  And I thought slavery was wrong.

Your logic is spot on, as usual, and it is particularly helpful to be 
reminded that Property is not an Object, but a Relationship.

Bentham hit the nail in the head:

“It is to be observed, that in common speech, in the phrase 'the object of a 
man's property' , the words 'the object of' are commonly left out; and by an 
ellipsis, which, violent as it is, is now become more familiar than the 
phrase at length, they have made that part of it which consists of the words 
'a man's property' perform the office of the whole.”

However, I disagree with your assumptions. I suspect that Marguerite is 
probably referring to "Commons" such as Land, Energy, Water and Knowledge 
where I  would build upon Proudhon by asserting that absolute Private 
Ownership of Commons is Theft (from Society).

My position is that those who have exclusive private USE of such Commons 
(which I agree with) should compensate those they exclude.  This may be 
recognised as the Principle underpinning Georgism.

It is also entirely consistent with one of the Principles underpinning Islam 
(and probably the other great religions too....) that absolute ownership of 
Fire, Pasture and Water belongs only to God.  I suspect that had the concept 
of absolute ownership of Knowledge existed in those times, then that would 
have been rightly prohibited too.

The innovation which I observe emerging - and which has potentially huge 
ramifications in terms of an "asset-based" alternative to the current 
"deficit-based" financial system - is essentially a new "property right" or 
way of "packaging" that bundle of rights of "ownership" and "use" set out in 
the excellent definition provided.

This is the concept of the "Open" Corporate of which the first example is 
the UK Limited Liability Partnership ("LLP") (not to be confused with the US 
LLP) and gives rise to a way in which it is possible to INVEST in land as 
opposed to securing bank-created credit against it.

This is all set out on my site

www.opencapital.net

In terms of work in relation to employee ownership, the "Open" Corporate 
allows this to be developed in a new direction, since Members of LLP's are 
"Co-owners" - sharing revenues or production - and not employees at all.

Essentially, I believe that the Joint Stock Limited Liability Company is 
obsolescent since the UK LLP and the US LLC allow alternatives which simply 
work better, which is why they are emerging.

Best Regards

Chris Cook