Ours: The Case for Universal Property

We think our wealth today comes from productive corporations and workers, but they merely add icing to a cake baked long ago. In this provocative book, Peter Barnes argues that most of today's wealth is co-inherited from nature and past human efforts, not individually earned. If some of that co-inherited wealth were placed in trust for each of us, living and yet-to-be born - creating what Barnes calls "universal property" - capitalism would be fundamentally transformed.

As Barnes notes, capitalism as we know it has two tragic flaws: it relentlessly widens inequality and destroys nature. Both flaws are a result of one-sided property rights that favor capital over everything else. Adding universal property to the current property mix would create a market economy in which businesses prosper, nature's limits are respected, and a large middle class thrives. This smart and concise book could set the agenda for a post-COVID world.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: 09/07/2021
ISBN: 9781509544837
Pages: 140
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 7.70h x 5.00w x 0.60d