I agree that ownership and property rights are an invention - though one of a free society. And you are correct that society can just as easily decide that these rights are no longer valid, though that is not a society I would ever consider free. To a certain extent that is happening already.
The day the individual is forced to give up his last right and his last dollar to the ugly greed of the 'collective good' will be a sad day indeed.
Welfare, free health care, free education... Free to him but it has to be paid for by someone. As more people rely on those benefits, the cost goes up for those who contribute to the system. The frightening question is what happens when the well runs dry?
Lots of memories there. Fun fact - the programmer of that game went on to contribute to the Allegro graphics library. Going from QB to DJGPP+Allegro seemed like a natural progression, and quite a few people in the QB community followed a similar path.