> As it turns out, it is absolutely possible to have a system that contains markets but not property rights: at the end of every year, collect every piece of property, and at the start of the next year have the government auction every piece out to the highest bidder.
I know this is just a hypothetical example, but...the government takes all property at the end of the year, except for money? Since presumably people need something with which to buy property at the auction. How does this work out at all from individual economic incentives? Seems like that just incentivizes everyone to try to end up with as much money and as little property as possible as the end of the year. And does the money from the highest bidder go to the previous owner? That would make sense, but this article implies that it just becomes government revenue.
This is basically just a system with no ownership and maximum of 1 year leases for everything. If you rent an apartment with 1 year leases, you don't have an incentive to try to sublet your apartment for the last day of the lease every time the lease comes up for renewal because no one will pay you very much for one day's use of the apartment and you wouldn't be able to use the apartment for that day.
I know this is just a hypothetical example, but...the government takes all property at the end of the year, except for money? Since presumably people need something with which to buy property at the auction. How does this work out at all from individual economic incentives? Seems like that just incentivizes everyone to try to end up with as much money and as little property as possible as the end of the year. And does the money from the highest bidder go to the previous owner? That would make sense, but this article implies that it just becomes government revenue.