Coding Land & Ideas | The Laws of Capitalism Episode 1

Prof. Pistor explains how the law selectively "codes" certain assets, endowing them with the capacity to protect and produce private wealth. She illustrates this process with the historical example of how land became legally coded as property during the enclosure movement in England. She compares it with more recent attempts to code traditional indigenous land use rights in Belize.

Prof. Pistor goes on to explain how even ideas (which are not natural property, in the traditional rivalrous sense of the term) can nonetheless be made property according to the law. The institutionalization of copyright and patent law has created an entire new class of property. How far can it go? She looks at the coding intellectual property in the medical industry, most notably recent attempts to patent human genes.

[ili]

Glad I found this. I’ll be rewatching, taking notes and anticipating each new episode

[timothykangethe]

She's well read and breaks down Historical events with exceptional structure and ease. An Impressive knowledgeable treatise.

[jimjmcd]

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals a goose from off the common,
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

[instantpotenjoyer]

this excellent content is quite nuanced, pithy, and sophisticated - the antithesis of what the youtube algorithm wants 😢

[Hellraizorr]

Impressive clarity and logical explication of basic concepts that are normally taken for granted and not thought about.

[katiecannon]

Pistor is absolutely wonderful. Such a clear presentation of a complicated subject that can be very difficult to wrap our heads around because it describes the water in which we fish just swim around in & never really think much about.

Plus, with the rise of neoliberal and “libertarian” thinking, it flies in the face of their fact free narrative.

[jonathanbailey]

Her book "The Code of Capital" is excellent

[AmitErandole]

brilliantly explained. waiting for part 2

[olgamarinho]

Recently found this channel. Excellent content.

[JudgeFredd]

Great informative content for making us awake

[Grimm]

Bravo! This is a brilliant resource. Thank you for creating these.

[mrmr]

Fantastic discussion. I just found this channel yesterday. Looking forward to new episodes. Cheers!

[housingrevolution]

Despite little in the Constitution about property rights, a lot of debate went on at the Constitutional Convention about finding the balance between property rights and personal rights. In Madison’s notes to his speech on this topic, he does say that property protections should only be given to those portions of property the owner is cultivating and laboring.
Two years prior, Jefferson wrote of a Geometric Property Tax that would have removed the economic incentive from hoarding land.
About four score later, Lincoln was quoted as saying to the effect that no one should be able to own land they are not living or working on.
So while the Constitution, written by landowners, sets no limits on the amount of land one person can own, despite the founders' hatred of Feudalism, there is ample documentation that they, and future leaders like Lincoln, were concerned about the potential for the New Feudalism that is plaguing our country now, and had some decent ideas for us to consider as we inch closer to land reformation.

[kristinwatkins]

We ought to abolish private property all together.

[alfrednewman]

Love it. Informative, concise, easy to grasp.

[HillbillyHippyOG]

Earth is a common inheritance to all, it is pure self-serving hubris for some to claim ownership of it. A right to life implies a right to the resources necessary to maintain life -in other words, a right to the land. ✌🏼

[ravindertalwar]

LIFE IS JUST TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED ❤️❤️ LOVE ALONE CAN CONQUER THE WORLD 🌎

[nthperson]

Professor Pistor''s important analysis would be strengthened by adding the insights of Henry George. The laws relating to the treatment of land as private property are inherently unjust. Why? As George argued, land is our common asset from which all production must come. Ideally, access and control of land and other natural assets (e.g., frequencies on the broadcast spectrum) ought to be granted based on the payment of an annual rental charge determined by competitive bidding and adjusted at least every few years based on current bidding activity. And, ideally, whatever improvements are then made on the land held ought to be exempt from taxation. Buildings of all types are depreciating assets, assets that require ongoing expenditure of funds for maintenance. Periodically, expenditures on such tangible assets are large, as systems must be replaced. As we see all the time, buildings eventually depreciate to a condition that they must either be torn down and replaced or undergo extensive renovation and upgrading. The objective of public policy ought to be to eliminate the potential to financially gain by hoarding of or speculating in land, while at the same time providing a strong financial incentive for those who control land to bring the land held to its highest, best legal use, or sell to someone who will.

She mentions Locke's analysis of how one gains property rights in land. What she does not mention is Locke's proviso: that enough of equal potential productivity is available for all. Locke understood that at some point -- even when the law prevents anyone from controlling land not efficiently utilized -- population increase will result in land coming to yield a rent on land that has superior potential productivity over whatever land is freely accessible.

Edward J. Dodson
School of Cooperative Individualism

[fredganoe]

Excellent. Looking forward to Part 2.

[jinsugarbrown]

Interesting definitions, Prof. Katharina Pistor.. It would have been equally valuable to elaborate on property rights as understood by the Vatican, especially given, its changing definitions and transactions with the state, indigenous land, ownership, theft, etc. Without the church's definition, we cannot fully grasp the idea of "property" throughout history.