Convince people that they'll be much better off having their possessions in a common pool, than actually owning anything themselves

The Ownership Society vs the Ownerless Society

By Daniel Greenfield
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

How do you trick someone into giving you something they have? First you offer them something worthless, while convincing them that it’s actually much better than what they have. Second, you convince them that what they do have is worthless. This is a typical approach used by both con artists and governments.

So one day you’re driving down the street, and you run out of gas. And that’s where a fellow in a shiny hat comes up to you, and asks why you’re bothering to drive cars, and spend money on gas and repairs, when for just 25 dollars a month, you can give up your old clunker and be enrolled in a People’s Collective Motor Pool, which will always be available when you want it, and extend the benefits of transportation to those who don’t own cars.

Of course the 25 dollars a month quickly turns into 50 and then a 100 dollars, and there are never enough available cars in the pool, the waiting period to actually get to where you want is many times what it used to be when you owned your own car—and the only people benefiting from the system are the ones who run the People’s Collective Motor Pool, where a statue of the fellow in the shiny hat stands in the parking lot, lauding him for the wonderful contribution to mankind he made to mankind by convincing everyone to give up their cars.

This is how the game is played. To turn an “Ownership Societyâ€