[netcan]

This is an idealisation. Useful for demonstration and abstraction but rarely a total picture.

To take an extreme example, the idea that the house belongs to someone until they sell it is constructed.

For a more real world example, what does "own" fully mean? Can you start a business there? Build a skyscraper? Oil refinery? Do you own minerals? Flight paths? Can you demolish it or is it listed? When selling a house, you are transferring rights that are pretty variable and ethereal. These rules are elastic in practice and affect wealth.

Most large markets depart from the idealisation, many much more than real estate. Financial markets, minerals telecommunications... What does Disney gain from tweaking copyright laws? How does tax law play in?

I am pro markets, but I think we need to acknowledge that they are dynamic and emergent within constructs, not natural or inherent.