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Question about ownership of the means of production (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by knitwitt@lemmy.world to c/socialism@lemmy.ml

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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. 🙏

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[–] knitwitt@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thanks your response! I understand that distributed ownership and cooperatives exist as an option, even in existing capitalist societies. What I do wonder about is to what extent private ownership would still be permitted to exist?

Maybe in my scenario nobody else in the community thought the tractor was a priority investment at the time the purchase was made. Or perhaps instead of just me owning the tractor, it's instead owned by my cooperative and we're wondering if we can lease it out to other cooperatives?

[–] Ramin_HAL9001@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

What I do wonder about is to what extent private ownership would still be permitted to exist?

Yeah, I think that is debatable and there are probably a few solutions, since we are only talking about hypothetical society. Just thinking out loud myself now: your example of leasing the tractor to other collectives could be done using money but there would have to be strict regulations to ensure that your lease price was fair, and maybe you would not be to charge interest, or only enough interest to cover the risk of losing the tractor. Or it could all just be done much more informally on a "to each their need" basis and the honor system, and you could maybe take them to court for a new one if they destroyed it or something.

I wish I knew more about how it worked in countries like Vietnam or Cuba, they probably have it all worked out.