What is the main message of Mine!?

The main message of Mine! is to understand the concept of ownership and how it impacts our society.

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Reading time for Mine! varies. The Blinkist summary can be read in a few minutes.

Who is the author of Mine!?

The authors of Mine! are Michael A. Heller and James Salzman.

Society & Culture

Mine! Book Summary - Mine! Book explained in key points

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Mine! summary

Name: Mine!
Rating: 3.9 (46 reviews)
Author: Michael A. Heller and James Salzman

Michael A. Heller James Salzman

How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives

3.9 (46 ratings)

25 mins

Brief summary

Mine! by Michael A. Heller and James Salzman is an examination of the legal and social concept of ownership. It offers insights into how a better understanding of ownership can lead to more efficient use of shared resources.

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Culture Anthropology Social Psychology Political Philosophy

Table of Contents

Mine!
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Discover the hidden rules of ownership that shape our world.

“Mine” is one of the first words any toddler speaks. When two children fight over a toy, one will inevitably shout it out. But what’s happening here isn’t just a competition over who can play with what. It’s a conflict of ownership stories.

From borrowing a friend’s HBO password to reusing lines from Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, ownership is always up for debate. Its rules are always changing: the more you have, the keener you are to manipulate them in your favor.

The result is that there’s now an increasing gap between what we own and what we feel we own. In these blinks, you’ll discover more about this – and about the six claims we all use to justify ownership.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how South Dakota is outdoing Switzerland when it comes to tax avoidance and banking secrecy;
why you can own someone else’s property in Colorado after 18 years of squatting; and
who owns the wedge of air behind reclining airplane seats.

Ownership design is an engineering tool that influences our behavior.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic and glanced longingly at all the empty space in the high-occupancy lane, wishing you had a car pool?

Or how about this: did you ever get stuck in a busy airport, thinking that next time you should really buy into that frequent-flier program which offers easy boarding and other perks?

If either of these rings true, you’ve been directly affected by a social engineering tool called ownership design. Its job is to influence your behavior, without you even noticing. Businesses and governments use it all the time, especially when they need to define rules around scarce resources.

When it comes to ownership, there’s always a choice – you’re either choosing for yourself, or someone else is choosing for you.

The key message here is: Ownership design is an engineering tool that influences our behavior.

If you’ve ever borrowed a friend’s HBO password, you’re not alone. But streaming media from another person’s account is piracy. In theory, it could land you in prison. HBO is aware of unauthorized streamers. It could easily sue users – and discourage piracy. So why doesn't it?

The answer isn’t because HBO doesn’t have time to prosecute all pirates. No, the company is making a strategic choice. By letting users get away with password sharing, HBO hopes that illegal streamers will get hooked on the network’s content. And somewhere down the line, when these users begin to earn enough money, they’ll buy a subscription of their own.

HBO is designing ownership in a manner that is deceptively simple, yet – the company hopes – effective. But this social engineering tool can also be used in a much more complicated manner.

An example is the so-called Duke Campout. Each September, graduate students of Duke University pitch sleeping bags and park RVs outside the local basketball stadium. They stay an entire weekend, and those who last until Sunday morning enter into a lottery. The prize is men's basketball season tickets. And not just any tickets: winners get to sit courtside, right at the heart of the action.

Many students remember Campout as one of their best memories at Duke. And this increases their likelihood of donating to the university.

Most importantly, those who win the Campout lottery are die-hard fans who “bleed blue,” painting their faces in Duke’s colors and chanting school slogans. As a result, the university’s brand gets a boost as the games are televised across the country.

The first in line aren’t always the first to be served.

In Washington, DC, attending a Supreme Court hearing is free, as long as you’re there early enough to get a seat. In other words, it’s first come, first served, otherwise known as first in time. So people arrive days in advance. They camp out in front of the courtroom to save their spots. But just before the entrance opens, something unexpected happens: bedraggled people at the top of the line swap places with new arrivals – smartly dressed men and women who hadn’t gone anywhere near that line.

This exchange is thanks to the line-standing business. Companies pay line standers the minimum wage to save spots for wealthy clients. And then firms sell these spots for as much as $6,000 each. That might sound deeply unfair. But consider that the business creates jobs for the poor and the homeless. Ban line standing and these people would be out of work.

You might not own what you think you own.

Every day we encounter subtle, sometimes almost invisible possession claims. We see them in cafeterias, playgrounds, even garages. Perhaps a jacket is reserving a seat at the movie theater, or a badge lays claim to a disabled space in a parking lot. We respond to these signals because possession is an instinct hardwired in our brains.

Conflicts over the possession of land have fueled countless wars, conquests, and even genocides. Have you ever wondered why Native Americans can’t legally reclaim land that was unjustly taken from them during the Indian Removal Act of 1830? The discouraging answer is that after over 170 years of occupancy, American law recognizes the US government as the rightful owner. It’s the result of what’s known as the law of adverse possession, or the process in which physical possession turns into ownership.

People often reap what others have sown.

As children, many of us learn that “you reap what you sow.” In the past, the notion that labor justifies ownership wasn’t just common sense, it was also an integral part of the laws about land ownership in the United States.

Soon after the US was founded, it passed the Homestead Act, which afforded 160 acres of land to any American citizen. There was one catch: you had to live on the land for at least five years and actively improve it. In 1823, the Supreme Court clarified that this didn’t apply to Native Americans: for them, hunting, gathering, and farming on the land didn’t justify ownership. In the colonization of America, ownership was limited to specific types of labor.

Claims of attachment justify ownership – but not always.

If you own a house, you’ll know how many square feet your property includes. But have you ever considered how much of the air inside the house you own? According to a maxim dating to medieval England, “whoever owns the soil, owns up to Heaven and down to Hell.” It’s a sentiment that echoes the claim of attachment, or the instinct that if you own something, then whatever’s attached to it, is also yours.

That may have been true in the Middle Ages, but the concept of attachment had to change over the years. Ownership laws simply had to keep up with the development of technology. A hundred years ago, courts actually said that you didn’t own the air above your home. A different decision would have grounded the nascent aviation industry.

The law dictates what parts of your body you can or cannot sell.

Who owns your body? Historically, our bodies have been considered sacred, unlike the objects we buy and sell, such as bicycles or furniture. But these days, the answer is far from obvious. Think about the organs inside your body.

Advances in medical technology have made transplantation possible. So can you trade your body parts for money? The answer often depends on which body part and, in some cases in the US, in which state. According to US law, what you do with your body isn’t always your choice.

Ownership rules affect your assets even after you die.

When upstate New Yorker Burr McDowell passed away in 1973, his adult children Arthur and Mildred inherited his rocking chair. The chair wasn’t worth much, but the children both had a sentimental attachment to it. The problem was that they couldn’t agree on how it could be split.

Arthur took the chair from Mildred’s house. So she sued him.

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What is Mine! about?

Mine! (2021) explores the hidden rules of ownership that govern our world and influence our behavior. From who rides first at Disney World to who owns the space behind your seat on an airplane, it reveals the secrets of who gets what and why.

Mine! Review

Mine! (2021) by Michael A. Heller and James Salzman is a thought-provoking exploration of the concept of ownership and the implications it has in our lives. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Through compelling stories and fascinating case studies, the book sheds light on the complex nature of ownership, making it a captivating read from start to finish.
It provides insightful analysis into the economic, legal, and cultural aspects of ownership, offering readers a comprehensive understanding of this fundamental concept.
With its intellectual depth and well-researched content, Mine! manages to make a potentially dry topic fascinating and definitely not boring.

Best quote from Mine!

Ownership is always up for grabs.

—Michael A. Heller and James Salzman

Who should read Mine!?

Fans of Freakonomics or Nudge
Law students
Pop culture enthusiasts

About the Author

Michael A. Heller and James Salzman are two of the world’s leading ownership experts. Heller is the Lawrence A. Wien Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law School. He’s also the author of The Gridlock Economy. James Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law, with joint appointments at the UCLA School of Law and the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. He’s also the author of Drinking Water.

Categories with Mine!

Society & Culture Politics Psychology

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