Commons

The President Stole Your Land (12/4/2017))

The United States' natural resource policy - which gives away mineral rights and is controlled by special interests - is a model for how things should not be done. The secrecy with which the Bush administration formulated its energy policy - even refusing to disclose the names of the industry representatives who participated - also makes for a dismal role model. Bush's arguments for executive privilege are loved by those trying to keep secret what they are doing - whether to benefit themselves, their cronies, or a wider circle of friends who have helped them stay in power. pg 151 Making Globalization Work. Joseph E. Stiglitz. www.wwnorton.com
“In one of the greatest ongoing surrenders of any country's history, our nation's natural resources have either been given away freely or leased at bargain-basement prices. Unlike any other country in the world, the United States has a law on the books - the 1872 Mining Act - that requires the federal government to give away mining rights, without any royalties in return, to mining companies, domestic, or foreign, that discover precious "hard rock" minerals, such as gold, silver...” Ralph Nader, Breaking Through Power pg 62 -
the federal government is now giving away public assets worth tens of billions of dollars to these holdouts, which include a relatively small number of billionaires who own media conglomerates. The American Prospect 10/2016
"The west has pursued an industrialisation path that allows for the privatisation of wealth from the commons, along with the criminalisation of commons rights of the public, as well as the externalisation of all true costs. Never mind that fracking produces earthquakes and poisons aquifers - corrupt politicians at local, state or province, and national levels are all too happy to take money for looking the other way. Our entire commercial, diplomatic, and informational systems are now cancerous. When trade treaties have secret sections - or are entirely secret - one can be certain the public is being screwed and the secrecy is an attempt to avoid accountability. Secrecy enables corruption. So also does an inattentive public enable corruption." Robert Steele
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” - FDR

Links

Trust For Public Land

Institute For Public Knowledge

On The Commons

Community Wealth

Tragedy of the Commons

Wikimedia Commons

Creative Commons

Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property

Wikimedia Projects

New York Public Library Digital Collection

Natural Capital Project

ETC group

Earth Intelligence Network

Internet

Education

Free Software

Public Domain

Unhappy Birthday

Free Software

National Parks Are Vulnerable to Privatization and Corporate Giveaways in the Trump Administration (2/10/2017)

Battle Lines Over Trump’s Lands Policy Stretch Across 640 Million Acres(11/18/2016)

The GOP's Shocking Attack on America's National Forests (8/27/2015)

Why Do Republicans Really Oppose Infrastructure Spending ? (5/15/2015)

Republican Senators Just Voted to Sell Off Your National Forests (4/15/2015)

Republicans Want to Sell off All Public Lands (3/27/2015)

The Great Republican Land Heist (2/2015)

A Grand Alliance To Save Our Postal System

Happy Public Domain Day: here are the works that copyright extension stole from you in 2015

Violence ahead as tragedies of the commons spread (11/24/2014)

The 15 Members of Congress Who Share Cliven Bundy’s Desire to Seize or Sell Off America’s Public Lands (5/22/2014)

Copyright for People, Not For Publishers (1/17/2013)

Darrell Issa's Got a Plan to Put the Postal Service in a Death Spiral

Ralph Nader on the Occupy Movement



Privatization is the enemy of the commons.

See pollution

Our crumbling infrastructure.

Who  Owns  Nature  ?  (pdf)

See the Free Software page.

Bibliography

The Starfish and the Spider, the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations: Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

Finding the Common Good in an Era of Dysfunctional Government: Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein: Daedalus 142, no 2 (Spring 2013)

Information Doesn't Want to be Free: Cory Doctorow

The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commmons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism: Jeremy Rifkin

The Tragedy of the Commons: Garrett Hardin

Open Source Everything: Robert David Steele (See this.)