One shouldn't accept this premise in a country that runs on pure refined greed. From that greedy cynical perspective, I'd think about patents this way. Say you

One shouldn't accept this premise in a country that runs on pure refined greed. From that greedy cynical perspective, I'd think about patents this way. Say you have a voice you use to say things. I'm, a rich greedy racoon, thinking "hm.. how can I own his voice so anything he says would pay me a royalty?" And I come up with a clever plan: make a law that allows anyone to wrap their voice into a "patent" that can be sold or rented like a property. The law is sold as a way to empower good voices and reduce inequality. Then, I manufacture a situation where people in need have to sell their voices to buy food. Now I'm a landlord, I mean voicelord, who "owns" voices. Very legal and very cool. Iirc, this is how Edison got to "own" Tesla's inventions.