[elliekelly]

There's a major difference between the "no one owns anything" concept from earlier civilizations and "a few people own everything" concept from feudal/imperial times. In one the things are held in a sort of "public trust" like a park or our highway system. In the other, the many are exploited into working to death so that the few property "owners" can derive (often excessive) "income" from "their" property.

The renting economy you describe brings us closer to the latter and that concept of ownership only works for the wealthy, who ironically end up not having to do any of the actual work.

[solidsnack9000]

In the present day, most land is held fee simple -- we have many rights, including the right to transfer the land and have our name taken off it; but we must still acknowledge the superior ownership of the government, which can take land by eminent domain, impose taxes, and enter the land with its police forces.

This is in contrast to allodial title, land held in an absolute sense, on which no taxes can be imposed by any authority. This is close to the sense in which nations hold land today, relative to one another. Allodial title is now a rarity.

Present day landholding is thus a situation where "many people own many things" and "one entity owns everything". It might be said that the government owns a certain minimal slice of rights of all land; but sells the the rest of the rights.

Maybe the same ideas apply for "stuff".