[Gllug] Uh oh, ministers consider "anti file-sharing laws"

[Iain Conochie]

> Actually, non-human animals do not have the concept of property in the
> sense we're talking abut it. As Adam Smith pointed out, it's only
> humans who have a 'propensity to truck and barter'.
>
> The assumption in this discussion is that property is something that
> can be alienated, that can be sold, taken or given away, and something
> to which you can claim a right. This is not generally true (especially
> the selling and rights bits) with, say, an animal's territory,
>
>   
Then again there have been human societies that have had no concept of 
"ownership" of land (maori's of New Zealand spring to mind), and as such 
could reasonable have been described to have been "ripped off" of the 
colonialists who "bought" the land from them, when the maori's were of 
the opinion that the colonialists were wanting to use it for their 
lifetime.

Also chimps have been taught how to perform simple tasks (work) to gain 
access to tokens (money) which they can use (trade) to gain food. This 
can be viewed as the basis for a money economy.

I would also like to point out that, IMHO just because money and 
property rights are "man made" as such (we define their place in 
society) and as such are social realities, this does not justify the tag 
of being un-natural. They are a part of the natural world, just as the 
market economy is a natural state

Cheers

Iain
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