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From: g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Types of Property
Message-ID: <6550@cca.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 01:47:23 EST
Article-I.D.: cca.6550
Posted: Thu Mar  6 01:47:23 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 15:23:41 EST
References: <1691@bbncca.ARPA> <536@whuts.UUCP> <1636@ihlpg.UUCP> <1121@ihlpa.UUCP> <528@mmm.UUCP> <287@aero.ARPA> <> <6495@cca.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge
Lines: 32
Summary: 

In article <> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
>
>Why distinguish between "social property" and "personal property" based
>on whether one person can operate it or not?  Why not make the distinction
>based on whether one person can *build* it?  This seems just as valid,
>perhaps more so, since an automated steel mill MIGHT be operable by one
>person, but would certainly require many people to build it.  This
>distinction seems designed to justify the status quo concerning leafletting,
>rather than a realistic basis for treating a mall differently than a
>church or home.
>
	Point well taken.  [Actually I don't give a damn about leafletting
in malls one way or another.]  "Personal property" normally has the char-
acteristic that the labor cost of bringing into existence is less than a
single persons lifetime.  However I did mean "operate" in a more general
sense.  Even if the steel mill is completely automated somebody has to
market the steel, somebody has to negotiate contracts for delivery of
ore to the mill and steel to the customers, etc.  Most property has the
characteristic that it has an associated function.  The distinguishing
feature of "social property" is that the exercise of its function requires
an organization and that its principal value is to an organization.  For
example, an office building is "social property".  Granted that people
could take shelter in it; however it was not designed for that and does
not serve that purpose very well.  [Obvious question -- how does one
classify an apartment building?  An army barracks?]

	One important feature of "social property" is that there must
be an institution associated with it -- it may be a company, a church,
a government, a club, a university, whatever.  [Yes, churches are
different from homes.]

	Richard Harter, SMDS Inc.