Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site charm.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!mhuxj!mhuxi!charm!tpkq From: tpkq@charm.UUCP (Timothy Kerwin) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Property, who owns what? Message-ID: <256@charm.UUCP> Date: Fri, 24-Feb-84 11:20:34 EST Article-I.D.: charm.256 Posted: Fri Feb 24 11:20:34 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Feb-84 04:24:14 EST References: <685@ihuxq.UUCP> <308@tty3b.UUCP>, <601@bbncca.ARPA>, <6448@cornell.UUCP> Organization: Physics Research - AT&T Bell Labs MH Lines: 21 * In its original form, "private property" meant that everyone has control over the product of his (or, in theory at least, her) labor. But the emergence of the capitalist system turned this meaning on its head. Under capitalism, the wealth produced is controlled not by those who produce it (the workers), but by the owners of the means of production (the capitalists). But capitalism's drive to develop the forces of production to the fullest has also led to the socialization of production. Under the conditions of modern capitalism, with hundreds and even thousands of workers working in the same factory, and complex interconnections between the various areas of production, it is no longer possible for an individual to say, "This is the product of *my* labor." Therefore, there is no way to "go back" to the original meaning of private property (individual producers controlling their product). But when capitalism is overthrown (by "expropriating the expropriators"), then society can take collective control over its collective product. And that's socialism.