ThirstyFish

You might remember this view from an earlier post. This house at Lake Golcuk is a guesthouse for the Turkish Ministry of Forestry.

According to a report published by Oxfam this week, "the world's 85 richest people own as much as the poorest 50 percent of humanity". That is, only 85 people own as much as over 3,500,000,000 people. And the trend of income inequality is continuing at an accelerated rate. In the U.S., since 2009, while 90% of Americans became poorer, 1% captured 95% of the growth.

This "wealth and power grab" by elites can partially be explained by our unscrutinized premises regarding private property rights. The rich have greater and greater influence over governments and politics, rigging laws in their favor, lowering their tax rates, moving their money to tax havens, and deregulating their interests. In a vicious circle, they are using their "surplus profits" to further monopolize critical means of production by purchasing public, private and collective property and resources. If this trend continues, and we do not urgently rethink concepts such as "private property" and inheritance, we are all going to be "owned" by a handful of elites.

Many Native American nations had it right. The world and her resources have been entrusted to us to utilize and share amongst ourselves, and to preserve for future generations. No one really "owns" the land, nor the sea, nor the air - they "belong" to every earthen being alive, and yet to be born. We need to drop the concept of "ownership" to survive as a species for more than a few more generations, because we don't actually own anything in the cycle of life.