Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth

In Silent Theft — a new book by New America’s Public Assets Program — David Bollier describes America’s vast “common wealth” and the increasing threat of commercial enclosure that is denying a fair return to taxpayers and eroding shared cultural values. The American Commons encompasses both tangible assets and resources that are neither private nor public property in a conventional sense including natural systems, such as the atmosphere, the airwaves and the human genome, but also resource management regimes, including the Internet, that are largely cooperative, decentralized, and democratic in character — arrangements with substantial attributes of a “gift economy.” Our government is not adequately protecting or promoting these common assets and commons management systems.

How did this happen? Most common resources are unrecognized by the American people as common resources. Companies, working quietly to claim ownership of formerly public assets like medical knowledge, the airwaves, public land, and open code software, are taking away that which people do not realize they collectively own. These market enclosures are happening rapidly and in every imaginable aspect of life: in nature, in academia, in science, and in cyberspace. Bollier shows how market enclosures can decelerate and in some cases even halt technological developments. He exposes how difficult it can be to protect the commons in a market-dominated society, while offering a way forward to reclaim the commons and reinvigorate our commonwealth.

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