Editing Ownership (section)

===Structured ownership entities===
Throughout history, [[nation]]s (or [[government]]s) and [[religious organization]]s have owned property. These entities exist primarily for purposes other than to own or operate property; hence, they may have no clear rules regarding the [[disposition]] of their property.

To own and operate property, structures (often known today as [[legal person|legal entities]]) have been created in many societies throughout history. The differences in how they deal with members' rights is a key factor in determining their type. Each type has advantages and disadvantages derived from their means of recognizing or disregarding (rewarding or not) contributions of financial capital or personal effort.

[[Cooperative]]s, [[corporation]]s, [[Trust law|trust]]s, [[partnership]]s, and [[Condominium (living space)|condominium association]]s are only some of the many varied types of structured ownership; each type has many subtypes. Legal advantages or restrictions on various types of structured ownership have existed in many societies past and present. To govern how assets are to be used, shared, or treated, rules and regulations may be legally imposed or internally adopted or decreed.

====Liability for the group or for others in the group====
Ownership by definition does not necessarily imply a responsibility to others for actions regarding the property. A "legal shield" is said to exist if the entity's [[Legal liability|legal liabilities]] do not get redistributed among the entity's owners or members. An application of this, to limit ownership risks, is to form a new entity (such as a [[Shell corporation|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. Many other properties are protected, when owned by other distinct entities.

In the loosest sense of group ownership, a lack of legal framework, rules and regulations may mean that group ownership of property places each member in a position of responsibility (liability) for the actions of every other member. A structured group duly constituted as an entity under law may still not protect members from being personally liable for each other's actions. Court decisions against the entity itself may give rise to unlimited personal liability for each and every member. An example of this situation is a professional partnership (e.g. [[Practice of law|law practice]]) in some [[jurisdiction]]s. Thus, being a partner or owner in a group may give little advantage in terms of share ownership while producing a lot of risk to the partner, owner or participant.

====Sharing gains====
At the end of each [[fiscal year]], [[Accountancy|accounting]] rules determine a surplus or profit, which may be retained inside the entity or distributed among owners according to the initial setup intent when the entity was created. For public corporations, common [[shareholder]]s have no right to receive any of the profit.

Entities with a ''member focus'' will give financial surplus back to members according to the volume of financial activity that the participating member generated for the entity. Examples of this are producer cooperatives, buyer cooperatives and participating whole life policyholders in both mutual and [[Share capital|share-capital]] [[insurance companies]].

Entities with ''shared voting rights'' that depend on financial capital distribute surplus among shareholders without regard to any other contribution to the entity. Depending on internal rules and regulations, certain classes of shares have the right to receive increases in financial "dividends" while other classes do not. After many years the increase over time is substantial if the business is profitable. Examples of this are common shares and preferred shares in private or publicly listed share capital corporations.

Entities with a focus on providing service ''in perpetuam'' do not distribute financial surplus; they must retain it. It will then serve as a cushion against losses or as a means to finance growth activities. 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.

Depending on the [[charter]] at the foundation of the entity, and depending on the legal framework under which the entity was created, the form of ownership is determined once and for all time. To change it requires significant work in terms of communicating with stakeholders (member-owners, governments, etc.) and acquiring their approval. Whatever structural constraints or disadvantages exist at the creation thus remain an integral part of the entity. Common in, for instance, [[New York City]], [[Hamburg]], and [[Berlin]] is a form of real estate ownership known as a [[cooperative]] (also co-operative or co-op, in [[Germany|German]] ''Wohnungsgenossenschaft'' – apartment co-operative, also "''Wohnbaugenossenschaft''" or simply "''Baugenossenschaft''") which relies heavily on internal rules of operation instead of the legal framework governing condominium associations. 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. To change their structure now that they are up and operating would require significant effort to achieve acceptance among members and various levels of government.

====Sharing use====
The owning entity makes rules governing use of property; each property may comprise areas that are made available to any and every member of the group to use. When the group is the entire nation, the same principle is in effect whether the property is small (e.g. [[picnic]] rest stops along [[highway]]s) or large (such as [[national parks]], highways, ports, and publicly owned buildings). Smaller examples of shared use include common areas such as lobbies, entrance [[hallway]]s and passages to adjacent buildings.

One disadvantage of communal ownership, known as the [[Tragedy of the Commons]], occurs where unlimited unrestricted and unregulated access to a resource (e.g. pasture land) destroys the resource because of [[over-exploitation]]. The benefits of exploitation accrue to individuals immediately, while the costs of policing or enforcing appropriate use, and the losses dues to over exploitation, are distributed among many, and are only visible to these gradually.

In a [[communist]] nation, the means of production of goods would be owned communally by all people of that nation; the original thinkers did not specify rules and regulations.