David Ellerman:
This is the 30th anniversary of the publication of this paper, Property and Production, which laid out the whole property-theoretic analysis of production. I would not change a word today. It was published in an anthology of papers on property rights:
Ellerman, David. 1984. “Property and Production: An Introduction to the Labor Theory of Property.” In Property: Cases, Concepts, Critiques, edited by Lawrence Becker and Kenneth Kipnis, 220–35. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall.Click here to download file.
3 comments:
This is actually a very interesting paper.
That's why I hereby make a prophecy: nobody (with Tom Hickey's possible exception) will ever read it, or - having read it - will acknowledge reading it.
It is interesting but the principles of labor and property ownership adopted by all common law nations and then all wto members, and further reinforced in TPP, NAFTA and other trade agreements make the current arrangements fairly permanent. Precedent and starry decissis preclude judicial action.
The only way we could ever change law would be either to start a new society or move far away -- to Mars or something, where trade agreements couldn't be imposed on traditional terms. Revolution is possible too but very unlikely the amount of violence it would take and the need for trade requires compatible laws. I think we are stuck with our system, at least in the US, Europe and Asia.
In nearly all states, anyone that works on any real property or delivers materials for use in a property but doesn't get paid can take ownership rights against title in the property. Those mechanic's/laborer's/materialmens liens on real property might grant rights similar to the labor theory of property proposes.
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