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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.