Ownership is the basis for many other concepts that form the foundations of ancient and modern societies such as money, trade, debt, bankruptcy, the criminality of theft, and private vs. public property.
Each type has advantages and disadvantages derived from their means of recognizing or disregarding (rewarding or not) contributions of financial capital or personal effort.
An application of this, to limit ownership risks, is to form a new entity (such as a shell company) to purchase, own and operate each property.
Since the entity is separate and distinct from others, if a problem occurs which leads to a massive liability, the individual is protected from losing more than the value of that one property.
A structured group duly constituted as an entity under law may still not protect members from being personally liable for each other's actions.
Examples of this are not-for-profit entities: they are allowed to make profits, but are not permitted to give any of it back to members except by way of discounts in the future on new transactions.
These "co-ops", owning the building for the mutual benefit of its members, can ultimately perform most of the functions of a legally constituted condominium, i.e. restricting use appropriately and containing financial liabilities to within tolerable levels.
Smaller examples of shared use include common areas such as lobbies, entrance hallways and passages to adjacent buildings.
Personal property may be classified in a variety of ways, such as goods, money, negotiable instruments, securities, and intangible assets including choses in action.
In law, the word real means relating to a thing (from Latin reālis, ultimately from rēs, 'matter' or 'thing'), as distinguished from a person.
Mutual life insurance companies, credit unions, foundations and cooperatives, not for profit organizations, and public corporations are examples of this.
Intellectual property (IP) refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea, or to some other intangible subject matter.
This legal entitlement generally enables its holder to exercise exclusive rights of use in relation to the subject matter of the IP.
Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of intangible subject matter, although in some cases there is a degree of overlap.
There is ongoing debate as to whether IP laws truly operate to confer the stated public benefits, and whether the protection they are said to provide is appropriate in the context of innovation derived from such things as traditional knowledge and folklore, and patents for software and business methods.
Persons who were so enslaved did not have the freedom to direct their own actions, and their legal rights were either severely limited or nonexistent.
The Antebellum period in the United States is considered both the worst for the exploitation of chattel slaves, and also where the practice aroused such fierce opposition and support that it led to the American Civil War.
However, until the 19th century slavery in one form or another existed in most societies and was thought of as the normal state of things; slaves of whatever ethnicity were considered racially inferior.
[17] The question of ownership reaches back to the ancient philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, who held different opinions on the subject.
Others consider the striving to achieve greater ownership of wealth as the driving factor behind human innovation and technological advancement and increasing standards of living.
Critics have claimed that slogan hid an agenda that sought to implement tax cuts and curtail the government's role in health care and retirement saving.