# Imagine if there were no posessions **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 4, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892 "2010-06-04T05:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/21 "2010-06-04T13:22:26Z")
… did the OP just say he was kidnapped and robbed by knife-wielding Rastafarians? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/22 "2010-06-04T13:40:35Z")
> [@Acid\_Lamp](#): > > Sure, but that isn’t the point of it. He presumbably enjoys the chase, search and eventual ownership of an original piece. Something you can replicate is the use of the weapon in historical context. How would you determine if something was really hundreds of years old versus merely having been replicated to be molecularly identical to a gun that’s hundreds of years old? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/23 "2010-06-04T13:42:05Z")
I once talked to a guy who said he was kidnapped, drunk, by a couple of Haitians with knives, and according to him, they made a similar threat, at which point he screamed, “Go ahead! My wife is fucking my brother! What do I need it for anyway?” And the two just shoved him away and left. Interestingly, he said his claim was true, which is what led him to the point getting blind drunk in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/24 "2010-06-04T13:53:14Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > If you don’t possess anything, how’re you gonna force me to work? Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge is a possible model. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/25 "2010-06-04T13:59:12Z")
> [@FloatyGimpy](#): > > It isn’t hard to do. I thought that one was the lone “I wonder if you can” :p. Edit: Though that was also my first thought. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/26 "2010-06-04T14:12:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > … did the OP just say he was kidnapped and robbed by knife-wielding Rastafarians? Maybe he’s in Jamaica. Speech pattern of the thieves fits, and there’s a lot of violence there. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/27 "2010-06-04T16:00:31Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Maybe he’s in Jamaica. Speech pattern of the thieves fits, and there’s a lot of violence there. I’m not comfortable getting specific about it, but he’s nowhere near Jamaica. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/28 "2010-06-04T17:45:50Z")
Clearly the OP lacks a basic understanding of what money is or what it represents. Everything you use or consume is the end result of someone elses labor and ideas. Money is simply a convenient medium of exchange. The basic premise of a free society is that your labor and intellect cannot be forced or coerced. You choose where you want to apply yourself based on what options are available to you, given the needs of other people. You can do nothing if you want, however as other people are not obligated to take care of your, your standard of living will likely drop considerably. The concept of “possessions” is an offshoot of this. Your possessions are yours by virtue of having exchanged your labor for them. I may not have actually built my own laptop, but I am able to aquire one in exhange for indirectly adding an equivalent value somewhere else in the economy. Imagine a world of lazy rastafas and people who simply don’t give a shit. There would be no posessions because nothing would get done. No homes built. No crops harvested. No deliveries made. Just a bunch of people living isolated in the jungle scavaging what they can. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/29 "2010-06-04T18:04:33Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m not comfortable getting specific about it, but he’s nowhere near Jamaica. How about Jamaica, Queens? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/30 "2010-06-04T18:08:24Z")
If there were no possessions, no one could ever save anything for later. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/31 "2010-06-04T21:06:48Z")
What if their were no hypothetical questions? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/32 "2010-06-04T21:23:28Z")
> [@No\_Man](#): > > A couple of local rastafas kidnapped me. First they tried to get my Visa pin code saying “Tomorrow you will not be” pointing a knife at my neck. > I replied (drunk as I was) that I could not care less. Then the man moved his knife two feet lower and said “ **Tomorrow you be No Man** ” so I had to give them what they wanted. > > Now some $5000 poorer I started wondering whether money or $$$ was the number of the beast. Can we live without money and private ownership? At least crime rates would drop down. You assume that the primary motivation of career criminals is to acquire wealth. In fact, most criminals are far from wealthy, or even well off, and those who are savvy enough to be organized and compound their earnings could probably do far better in business. Most predatory crime is first and foremost about control, and money and sex are just mediums for that. > [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge is a possible model. And of course no crime occurred under that regime. Well, very little that wasn’t sanctioned by the regime, anyway. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/33 "2010-06-04T21:56:10Z")
Throughout man’s history, the guy with the most possessions also got the hot babe(s). After many thousands of years of this, man evolved into John Lennon, renounced possessions, and got - Yoko Ono. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/34 "2010-06-04T22:57:46Z")
To take the hypothetical seriously (not the Jamaican robbery hypothetical, the other one): No possessions, eh? We all starve to death. Okay, so I guess you actually meant that all out needs and desires will be provided for by The Government. If I want food, I’m given food. If I want steak tartaire, I’ll get steak tartaire. If I want skis to go skiing with, I’ll get skis to go skiiing with. If I want to sleep on a solid gold bed padded with a mattress of hair clipped from the heads of infants, it will be provided. Hmm, given all that, why am I not allowed to have possessions again? Clearly we have awesome replicator technology and can give anyone anything, as much as they want. Wait, you say we _can’t_ have anything we want? There’s still scarcity? Then I’m asking for one thing: a gun. The rest will take care of itself in the immediate scarcity wars as everyone instantly realizes that if they don’t steal and hoard the canned food, the’ll be the guy who gets no food at all. Soon people will have possessions again - there will just be fewer people. So yeah - I’m not seeing how this ‘no possessions’ thing is supposed to work. Now excuse me; I need to go bask in the presence of all my possessions - they make me happy. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/35 "2010-06-04T23:34:27Z")
Having no possessions is always an option. Walk into the woods and start hunting and gathering. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/36 "2010-06-04T23:38:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Sure, but that isn’t the point of it. He presumbably enjoys the chase, search and eventual ownership of an original piece. Something you can replicate is the use of the weapon in historical context. I always wondered how Sulu paid for his antique guns in a society with no money. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/37 "2010-06-04T23:53:48Z")
Rastas huh?? Yeah right… If you get robbed by two Jamaicans who happen to wear their hair in a dreadlock style that doesn’t confirm that they in fact are Rastafarians. Your scenario is like a scene out of a Miami Vice episode season one. Instead of pondering possessions perhaps you might ponder not making yourself such an easy mark for robbery. I do say that it does get annoying when people are such suckers… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/38 "2010-06-05T01:13:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I always wondered how Sulu paid for his antique guns in a society with no money. His society had “credits” which were used for transactions. The moneyless stuff came much later. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/39 "2010-06-05T01:39:58Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m not comfortable getting specific about it, but he’s nowhere near Jamaica. But \*\*No Man \*\*_is_ an island. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892/40 "2010-06-05T03:43:51Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > But \*\*No Man \*\*_is_ an island. 😉 **Simon & Garfunkel** disagree: _I’ve built walls, A fortress deep and mighty, That none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain. I am a rock, I am an island._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imagine-if-there-were-no-posessions/541892.md?page=3)