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The Importance Of Private Property In Thomas More's Utopia

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Utopia
When More wrote Utopia, it was at the peak of Renaissance England. It was a time of apparent cruelty from the wealthy property owners and disease and poverty for others in the kingdom. More himself had been called to advise the king and was in a dilemma. His friend in the dialogue, Hythlodae did not believe in advising kings. He held that kings only used advisers for fiendish ends. One of More’s suggestions in the book was the abolition of private property as it was in Utopia. This paper shall look at the issues in the kingdom at the time that would be solved with this measure. It shall also look at why private property leads to illusory pleasures and why the more natural pleasures of Utopia are better.
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One of the ills that bedeviled …show more content…

First and foremost, when one has money, there is the need to look for more. Even before one has used up the money that he or she has, there is the pressure to get more to maintain the same level of comfort. It is a perfect spiral. The more money or property one gets, the more one wants. When looked at in the modern perspective, it is what is now called a rat race. One needs the money to maintain his or her life and does not go out to earn to make him or herself happy.
Furthermore, when one is rich there is the fear that the money will be taken away from him or her. People who are rich in financial or monetary terms will invariably be concerned about their security. In England at the time, the nobility prescribed the most severe punishments for any person caught stealing. It was an expression of their fear of losing their wealth that many times was ill gotten. They could not even sleep properly as they always worried about the people coming and attacking them. They had to build high walls and moats to protect themselves. It is in contrast with the people of Utopia who did not have to worry much. Everything belonged to anyone so no one was a target. They could about their lives in real

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