Personal Property - Personal Versus Private Property

Personal Versus Private Property

In political/economic theory, notably socialist (including anarchist) philosophies, the distinction between private and personal property is extremely important. Which items of property constitute which is open to debate.

  • Personal property is part of your person and includes property from which you have the right to exclude others (e.g., televisions, cars, clothes, etc.)
  • Private property is a social relationship, not a relationship between person and thing according to Marx (e.g., factories, mines, dams, infrastructure, etc.). In capitalism there is no distinction between personal and private property.
  • To many socialists, the term private property refers to capital or the means of production, while personal property refers to consumer and non-capital goods and services.

Read more about this topic:  Personal Property

Famous quotes containing the words private property, personal, private and/or property:

    “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
    —Karl Marx (1818–1883)

    “Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided.... No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a duty.”
    —Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)

    “A private should preserve a respectful attitude toward his superiors, and should seldom or never proceed so far as to offer suggestions to his general in the field. If the battle is not being conducted to suit him, it is better for him to resign. By the etiquette of war, it is permitted to none below the rank of newspaper correspondent to dictate to the general in the field.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    “No man is by nature the property of another. The defendant is, therefore, by nature free.”
    —Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)