Worzels World - Thoughts on ownership

 

Gravity exerts a force of 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. Yes, it is true that people are lighter on mountain tops. It’s handy stuff gravity. It keeps everyone’s feet firmly on the ground. Without it we‘d fly off into space and explode. This would render our continued existence impossible and make playing rugby and water polo very difficult. We can use gravity to bring logs down mountains and water through pipes. No one owns it, it is simply there and so far no one has tried to charge us for it. One of the redeeming properties of gravity, one unnoticed by Newton, is that it can’t be put in a box or fed down a pipe or a wire.

I sometimes wonder at the fairness of this arrangement. There are undoubtedly overly large persons who are constantly using more than their fair share of gravity. Yet I’ve seen birds and ballerinas that use hard-ly any at all. It’s obvious though that gravity exists, that we all use it and that no one can own it.

A sailor pays for his boat and sails, but after that the wind is free. It would be utterly preposterous to even consider charging sailors for using the wind.

Gravity, sunshine and wind have all escaped the modern habit of sticking a price tag on everything, from death and disaster to resources that should be commonly owned and shared by all. It makes sense that wealth – such things as water, oil, and minerals – and the wealth they produce should be shared by all born onto the land of there origin. On a world scale New Zealand is wealthy, largely on account of its many natural resources – the land, a small population, a temperate climate. Yet there are many who get no benefit from our in-herited wealth – the land itself.

The Christchurch earthquake is said to have cost many billions of dollars. I don’t know if it was worth it. Perhaps we should return it under the Consumer Guarantees Act and get a refund. Or can we perhaps exchange it for a fortnight’s sunshine? No, the earthquake was actually supplied by God, nature or whatever, totally free of charge. It is only our response to it that costs anything. I think one saving that could have been made was to use available resources to make Christchurch habitable again rather than paying people to forecast what, in dollar terms, the earthquake cost.

It is a fact of modern life that you will be charged for any and everything that avaricious profiteers can bill you for, whether or not the commodity being sold can even conceivably be owned by anyone.

I once thought I could own things. I worked hard and was not a totally inadequate businessman. For years I believed I owned the trucks, cars, motorcycles, houses, land and other

general trappings that passed through my life. I did not. I just got to use them for a while. Even the food in my freezer is not really mine until it goes into my mouth and reaches my gut, and this too, like all things, shall pass.

I have come to the conclusion that there is really no such thing as ownership, that the one and only thing anyone can possess is themselves and this too is more valuable when given away. Those who live in tribal cultures seem to better understand this. Traditionally if they wanted something they took it and were ready to pay the price of taking it. If this meant building and carrying a canoe to harvest the sea's bounty or stalking an animal on the plain or in a forest, they did it. If it necessitated raiding another tribe, then banging them on the head, that was done. They too risked being banged on the head in return. People, tribal or otherwise can only keep what they are strong enough to hold.

Consumers who do not provide any goods or services that others want or need are ripping others off. If any pretend ownership to more than can be reasonably justified by what they contribute, then they are a liability to the community and the world at large. It would be of benefit to all if they were banged on the head and eaten.

No matter what you use or consume, some of it was grown, harvested or made by someone else. No matter how honest and law abiding, those that take more than they contribute are bludgers, those who amass fortunes over and above what they could possibly produce or reasonably use are thieves and rob-bers who have exploited the lives and labour of others. There is no such thing as a free lunch, the cost of every meal is paid for by someone. If you are not paying for yours then someone else is. If you're not real tough and also pretty smart then it's odds on that somewhere, sometime, somehow, someone will metaphorically or literally bang you on the head and relieve you of what you think you own.

„ prof_worzel@hotmail.com

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