Howdy! I’m new here and was hoping someone might have some insight to a question I’ve been thinking about for a while:
If I saved up my money and bought a tractor, would it be permissible/ethical to charge others to use it when I didn’t need it?
This seems awfully similar to owning the means of production. What if I instead offered to plow their fields for them instead, driving the tractor myself and negotiating fair compensation in exchange?
Sorry if this is basic stuff I’m still learning. 🙏
Yeah… another way to say it would be:
Giving things (especially means of production) the attribute of property, “being property of X”, is a contingent human decision. It’s ONE specific way of organizing the handling of things (tightly connected to the idea that the “owner” uses the given thing for his*her own benefit).
Another way of organizing things, aka mode of decision making regarding ressources (nature, labour, and its products), production, distribution would be having a king that tells everyone what to do. Another option would be democracy: “Oh dang, we got a tractor over here. Let’s see how we can use it best to fulfill the next important need”
That way you are right, your community (feat. You) would decide what to do with your tractor. Depending on how long capitalism would be gone at that time, people just might look at you a bit puzzled when you call it “yours”. You know, since the idea of you being given the power to decide over a tractor you didn’t build and can’t consume, is quite weird ;)