The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (was he really a philosopher?) is quoted as saying, (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality), "The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race been spared, had someone pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men 'Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!'"
Of course, Rousseau was an idiot.
And my point. Property and the concept and its import are critically important to all society and the nurture of civility.
When a person 'owns' property, he, she looks after it. Takes care of it. And generally society as a whole benefits from this form of selfishness. The act of being selfish...for one's own benefit.
All over Ukraine, small cities and large, I find people who live in good quarters, their own, which they maintain nicely. Their homes are a joy to enter. Pride, cleanliness prevails.
But, I come to the place, my friends' house. And the stairwells are literally shit. Why? Garbage, the smell of urine, other bad things. The elevators (lifts) don't work. Even if they do the lighting is poor. They stink.
What if?
The ZHEK was abolished. The people who owned the apartments were given title to the common areas. What if it belonged to them?
Maybe, maybe...these same people who do so well, take care of their own apartments would then see to their common areas. The same pride they express by tending their own residences would cause, pause. They might see benefit in taking care, communally or separately for the contiguous areas.
The so-called State could legislate this easily.
And why in the name of anything other than nonsense does the State give a damn about 'owning' these 'properties'?
I don't know.
Just an idea.
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