The ‘Ownership Tragedy’
By: Floris Koot
Tags: Social Justice, Tragedy Of The Commons, Corona, Virus, Politics For Tomorrow

We can only flourish in a healthy and safe society. (T-shirt Flourish Gaia)

The ‘Ownership Tragedy’

The ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ has a destructive brother

The Tragedy of the Commons states that no one will take care of collectively shared, or unowned property. We may take too much out, and so spoil it for all others. Yet, the opposite is also true. It is equally damaging for everyone when everything is privately owned. Let me explain.

The Corona epidemic shows the limitations of ownership fixation.

The spreading of the Corona virus, especially in the USA, makes one thing very clear: individual healthcare is a rotten way to confront a collective crisis. A right wing anti-collective healthcare talking point is: “Why should I pay for someone else’s sickness?” Well, there are many reasons for that, and the virus makes them visible. The viral disease is a collective threat for society as a whole. To treat it we need to see society as one organism, made up of many cells (people). The more individual cells get sick, the more the whole system gets sick. We already see that in the Wall Street panic starting to happen. When sick cells don’t get help from others, they’ll get sicker and infect more.

Before we dive right in, disclaimer for the anxious right wingers: no, I’m not a socialist nor communist and, I’m not even a Dem. If you read that anyway into this article, check up your other infection here.

Who should pay for this? The rail company, you in higher tickets, or the government? (okay, is you in higher taxes) (picture royalty free of Iranian metro being cleaned)

Why the Ownership Tragedy makes us all suffer.

The more people act in time in order to prevent themselves and others getting the disease, the less easy the disease will spread. We know, because of poverty, many people often wait too long to visit a doctor out of fear for costs they can’t bear. They also might continue working as long as they can while being sick, because they can’t afford missing pay. Thus there’s high risks they’ll infect even more people. The insane amount of individualization of all health & income responsibility leads therefor to actions that will endanger the whole system. What kind of healthcare would help to protect us all in cases of a collective disease? A system which would make it as safe as possible to consult a doctor or stay at home for two weeks without going bankrupt. You need healthcare and a government that treats this as a collective threat and responsibility. Everything is interconnected, and interdependent. Already we hear if China can’t deliver medicines because of a quarantine, then the whole of the US will have medicine shortages in days. A healthy China can deliver, a sick China can’t. (Also a friendly China helps more than an enemy) Those who only think in power or profits for themselves are thus out of their wits when the sickness of another affects themselves. Everyone who can’t work, can’t show up for work, not only will suffer personal consequences, they’ll also damage the whole economy when there’s too many of them. With the same logic, perhaps now we can see, that all talents not reaching full potential are also a loss for a nation as a whole. Hence what goes for healthcare, goes for education, for the infrastructure, etc. And, as people in Sydney will confirm: clean air. A healthy environment. It should all be freely accessible. The ‘each for himself, everyone else is (potentially) competition’ concept damages as much as the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Too many people have learned: ‘don’t give a shit about others’. When action of everyone is needed, the contribution of the self serving types is often counterproductive. Like sports coaches know, the team must come before attempts to gain personal glory. The talking point that ‘only what is owned will get protection’, falters in the face of an immaterial collective interconnection. It doesn’t stop a virus. The Tragedy of the Commons is back, but now as the Tragedy of Having Been Fed a Flawed Solution* to the Tragedy for centuries.

Decades of demanding smaller taxes and smaller government has a price. The fear of misuse of power has led to failing power. Too few saw it’s not power, nor size that is the issue, but the intention of an organization. Because of this, a weakened government now falters in the face of a collective drama. And that is not even addressing the quality of staff that runs that government. Such a government can’t enact clear enough collective steps with the whole in mind. Hell, it can’t even see, let alone admit, that fundamental convictions are hindering good solutions.

*) Hence this whole ordeal is also a lesson for us all. What country, what system best saves the most people, and suffers the least economically?

How ownership limits scope of caring.

Historically we should propose, the Tragedy of the Commons was a solution, mixed with a kind of a coupe. That last bit isn’t shared enough. The privatization of common lands also started a rise in income inequality, because the powerful now obtained more land, and could set more rules. They invented Ownership Exclusivity. And as many poor didn’t have enough left to live from, they started to work for the rich. Many got paid a little bit to little so people had to sell their land. Labour contracts are nothing short of imposed servitude. This same privatization trick led to the disastrous US healthcare system. Ownership doesn’t mean improved care for what is owned. More realistically it means: ‘we only offer access to those with money.’ Here the British do better, by having a collective healthcare. People don’t fear going to the doctor in Britain over financial reasons.

From lack of care to full blown corruption

The Ownership Tragedy has created an ownership obsession that is as sickening as the Tragedy of the Commons. Many large corporations frantically focus on what they can possess of collective goods for self enrichment, like Nestlé with drinking water. And the next thing is: they don’t care about what is owned by others. Pollution, collapse of systems doesn’t stop at borders. The big corporations (ha, I first misspelled ‘conporations’, which makes sense too) collectively invest in not being responsible for what they don’t own. That goes from their own waste, toxic air, all the way to whatever happens to others. They’ll use their money and power to get enough laborers and infrastructure, but not to heal the collective. We’ve seen Coal mines bribe politicians, to give us ‘clean coal’. That is what happens to all of us, when we’re only in it for ourselves, only care about what we own, only focus on getting to own more, believe the lie, that what is owned, will be taken well taken care off, while way way too many lack a safety net, for when things go wrong. So, yes even these coal mine owners needed a safety net, to stop their polluting practices.

Native Americans have a better understanding of the interaction between individual growth and that of the community. The sickness of their collective poverty and genocide history leads to many depressed individuals.

We can only save us all, when we accept we’re all in the same boat.

The massive drop of the stock exchange is based on the fear of the economy grinding to a halt. The very rich will lose a few millions. But the weak in society will be hurt much more. The ‘Ownership Tragedy’ may lead to many fragile people losing their job or life. “Sorry, when clients stay at home, we don’t need you at work.” Many of the sick, or those send home to prevent getting sick, will get into debts because they can’t go to work. Many can’t afford any new doctors bills, or medicines. Many may be kicked onto the streets, because they can’t pay the bills, when not at work. And all those victims, will also cost the big companies, who so cling to the ownership exclusivity, enormous amounts of money. They’ll lose workers, consumers, clients. They’ll want money, like the banks in 2008 to stay upright. In fact, perhaps they should learn and see, that if society as a whole isn’t helped upright, they too will suffer anyway. But this idiotic, favor the powerful system, will once again, save the big companies, punish the poor and thus hollow out the shoulders these corporations all rest on: the middle class and low paid workers.

In ancient China, the most important task of the government was to maintain a grain storage, so that in times of shortages of food, everyone would have something to eat. If done privately, we get preppers willing to shoot trespassers, and many victims. The best defense against hunger, against viruses and against pollution and climate disasters is to have a collective safety net that includes everyone. The best society has people investing in the whole, surpassing the tragedy of the commons. The best society shares and it has enough people willing to help save it, in times of need. And when people don’t need to fear being bankrupted because of a disaster, they can also afford help everyone else at their own expense.

We are not leaders to be in power, but to be in service of the whole.

Idea for a different tax approach.

We must stop beating around the bush. The Ownership Tragedy is as destructive as the Tragedy of the Commons. But how to make companies care for people not in their direct sphere of influence? How to share without resorting to enforced communism? These questions are currently essential.

I wonder, might new tax systems help? For companies: the more healthy your society around all of your property is, the less taxes you pay (Yes, Apple that includes the factories in China). Poor people get more help in troubled or broken down communities (Flint?) when they show they act for the benefit of their community through action. Thus everyone has an incentive to invest in the neighborhood. The bigger your wallet, the bigger the circle this counts for and the cleaner and healthier we want it. The more your negative actions impact others, the bigger the fines you can get. Hence poor people in already dirty neighborhoods pay less anyway. They need the safety net and investments to get them back up on top. And the healthier, better educated, better infrastructure they create with a clean environment, the more money they’ll generate for the economy, the stronger the safety nets for everyone and the more taxes they’ll need to pay too. Because happy individuals can only be happy in a happy healthy body.

That was my solution. Many more might be possible and or needed. Let’s start with addressing the Ownership Tragedy, and see what solutions and approaches where best help solve the Corona virus crisis. And let’s learn from that, in how we solve the climate crisis and our collapsing eco-systems, which are most fundamental major victims of the Ownership Tragedy.