Assets are things that have value to others and for which they are willing to pay. Value comes from selling the assets or what the asset produces and does not destroy the asset's value. We call the value of the asset Capital. Capital can be Private or Public and selling it leaves the value intact.
Entities can own assets. When the ownership is restricted, we call it Private Capital. When a community collectively owns an asset, we call it Public Capital. Community members obtain Public Capital whenever they buy goods or services produced by the collectively owned assets.
Public Capital creates profits by charging less, and the community shares the savings. Private Capital makes profits by charging more, and the Private owners keep the profits. The community may share the profits with taxes on the profits.
Public Capital typically costs less to operate because it requires less money to achieve the same value of output, and it does not have to issue and distribute taxes. When there are many owners of Private Capital, there is the cost of dividing up profits.
For long-lasting assets, Public Capital is half the cost to the community of Private Capital. Public Capital is more productive as there is less needed, and it costs less to operate and distribute profits.
Public Capital leads to lower prices and stable Capital values, while Private Capital leads to higher prices and inflated Capital values.
