| Collective Ownership
There have been several threads lately that have brought up the idea of collective ownership. Rather than clog up those threads with rather off-topic posts, I decided to start a new thread. The purpose of this thread is to hopefully reach a commonly-accepted definition of "collective ownership" and any logical conclusions that definition leads to.
With that said, I'd like to start off by saying that, when I hear the term used by its proponents, I'm not entirely sure what they mean. To me, saying that something is owned "collectively" means that everyone owns it. Yet this seems tantamount to saying that no one owns it. From there, we get into the "tragedy of the commons" concept. However, this cannot be completely accurate, for most businesses could be said to have collective ownership on the part of their shareholders. Then again, a corporation is a legally-recognized individual. Hopefully others can see the dilemma I have right now. In any case, I'd like to hear your thoughts about collective ownership and what it entails.
- Rob |