Hi. I'm not jb, but I thought I might reply.
I’m not sure that you got jb’s point. I don’t believe that he is proposing that the "government" ban property ownership. I felt that he was making the argument (that many anarchists before him have made including Pierre-Joseph Proudhon http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=ProProp&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/eng-parsed
) that property is theft. Of course a statement like that comes across as over-simplifying the problem to most reform-minded folks, but personally I can’t think of a truer statement. I personally believe that the system of property ownership, a basic tenet of capitalism – no matter how many collective living communities and what-not there are – is oppressive and serves to make the poor poorer and make the rich richer. I think that wrangling around within the system to create a nice niche for peace loving community minded folks is nice, but it doesn’t solve the many problems that capitalism creates for low income people, like the homelessness issue that you refer to. And so what you do have is a group, perhaps a movement, of people who can afford to make their lives a little better for themselves within this system while the rest, the ones who can’t afford to buy property etc. continue suffering.I have to say that framing the discussion as ‘Rent strike vs. buying property’ or whatever is misleading. This suggests that most people have a choice. Most people who rent are not doing so because they chose not to buy. They’re doing so because they can’t buy property. 40% of the people in this city live at or below the poverty level, most would not qualify for a home loan with a conventional lender. If you’re black you’re twice as likely to be turned down for a home loan, no matter what your income, than if you’re white. A tenants union is an excellent tool to create change in poorer communities. Creating a tenants union is building community. And every once in a while tenants unions are successful in getting the property turned over to the tenants.
I do happen to agree with you that if (when?) the working people organize and begin to liberate amongst other things property, there will be "a whole lot of rage". But not from the working class, this "rage" will come from the smallest portion of society, namely the property owners (and I’m not talking about the folks who pay the bank every month for the right to live in their house).
bob
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