The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been detained by Israel and reportedly maltreated by her Israeli captors after she was kidnapped, along with hundreds of other activists, from Gaza’s territorial waters on Friday.
Private property in this context means things which generate/are used to generate capital, not just any kind of object which people might have and use. The important distinction is that capital is social, it is a means of coercing others to do work for you. That’s true for a factory, where people work for the owner, or for a rented property where the tenant must work to pay the owner. It’s true in a way even for wages - when you spend money you are buying the products of people’s labour (which under capitalism was not produced in a just way). It’s not the case for your toothbrush.
The distinction that liberalism made was that everyone should in theory be allowed to own private property rather than royals appointed by divine right and hereditary nobility they delegated some power to. Not that in the 1700s we were suddenly allowed to have our own clothes for the first time in history.
Isn’t it though? I didn’t make my toothbrush. It came from the toothbrush factory. In fact, it’s an electric toothbrush. Which presumably requires a lot of somewhat high tech inputs and resources to create. Would someone have developed this innovation without some economic pressure to do so? I’m not totally convinced. I think there is some role for capital in that sense. Maybe I’m wrong.
Thank you for taking my somewhat tongue in cheek comment so generously though. My humor is not always placed appropriately and doesn’t always come across well, but it sometimes provokes people to respond, and I’m simply trying to learn and keep an open mind, and I appreciate your time and effort in sharing your knowledge.
Private property in this context means things which generate/are used to generate capital, not just any kind of object which people might have and use. The important distinction is that capital is social, it is a means of coercing others to do work for you. That’s true for a factory, where people work for the owner, or for a rented property where the tenant must work to pay the owner. It’s true in a way even for wages - when you spend money you are buying the products of people’s labour (which under capitalism was not produced in a just way). It’s not the case for your toothbrush.
The distinction that liberalism made was that everyone should in theory be allowed to own private property rather than royals appointed by divine right and hereditary nobility they delegated some power to. Not that in the 1700s we were suddenly allowed to have our own clothes for the first time in history.
Isn’t it though? I didn’t make my toothbrush. It came from the toothbrush factory. In fact, it’s an electric toothbrush. Which presumably requires a lot of somewhat high tech inputs and resources to create. Would someone have developed this innovation without some economic pressure to do so? I’m not totally convinced. I think there is some role for capital in that sense. Maybe I’m wrong.
Thank you for taking my somewhat tongue in cheek comment so generously though. My humor is not always placed appropriately and doesn’t always come across well, but it sometimes provokes people to respond, and I’m simply trying to learn and keep an open mind, and I appreciate your time and effort in sharing your knowledge.