The Notion of Property Rights - Essay Example

Insert Explanations on John Locke’s Notion of Property Rights Known widely as the father of liberalism, John Locke (August 29, 1632-October 28 1704) had a very strong conviction on property right. To Locke, the earth and the fullness therein is a property that is to be used by people in common, to the benefit of these people and to these people’s existence. To possess this property in common, every individual in the society should be accorded the right to that property. Therefore, an individual has to have a way of earning all of his properties, in order to possess an individual property that is to be used only by a sole individual.

Locke also points out that the property that is acquired has to be expended by an individual who owns it, by the virtue of earning it. According to Feallsanach, Locke maintains that through this process, there are to be individuals who possess more assets like land, than their fellow, and this thereby results in economic inequality. Because of the foregoing, value in the form of property or money that has been acquired through the labor of an individual should be proportionate to the labor that the same individual has put into his work.

In this case, Locke postulates that economic inequality emanating from this arrangement will have become justifiable since no individual rights will have been contravened. Locke continues that for those who do not own property, the power and potential to own labor and receive reciprocal payment for that property or land constitutes the equality to own property. In contrast to this, those who are unable to produce their own labor through a fault that is not their own, have to rely on others, so as to access resources for themselves and maintain their natural rights (Feallsanach, 320).

Locke divulges that to acquire land, an individual has to possess the means of accomplishing this task. To this light, Locke contends that whatever a man removes out of the state of nature and mingles with his labor and joined with his property makes the object his. Every individual possesses his own body and the labor that his own body performs should be concomitant to the property which is owned. This is to the effect that if an individual adds his labor to a piece of property, then that piece of property or parcel of land is to be considered his personal property.

Limits (if any) are placed upon our possession of property by Locke Just as Zuckert and Mack point out, there are limits that Locke places in his postulation on the right to own property. Locke makes his postulation on the acquisition of property while assuming the existence and adherence to the rule of law, particularly property law. For instance, when Locke contends that as long as an individual has used his labor to remove out of the state of nature an object, and mingled this object with his labor and conjoined it to his property so as to make this object his property, he is assuming that such an act is not larcenous.

The same is also applicable to the example he gives of an individual who picks an apple and makes it his. Herein, Locke is assuming that the apple is picked from a public place, in lieu of a private property or compound, so that the act of picking the apple is separated from thievery (Zuckert and Mack, 175). Feallsanach further divulges that Locke takes his standpoint to be sacrosanct to the point of serving as the litmus test of testing the validity of a government. To Locke, the apple that the individual has picked and joined to his share of belongings becomes that individual’s, consent or objection of the government, that notwithstanding.

This is to the effect that the right to acquire and own property is paramount, to the extent that any government which withholds this right becomes unjust and illegitimate (Feallsanach, 322, 323). How Our Property Rights Change Once People Enter Civilized Society Outside of Locke’s position on the right to own property, there are changes that may take place once a civilized society comes into being. A civilized society will at times make exceptions to this right by either appropriating a portion of an individual’s property through taxation; or by acquiring an individual’s property or communally-owned property at a fairer rate if this property is important in furthering state interests.

At the same time, civilized societies have more stringent laws which will streamline the acquisition of property through labor by legislating laws that will criminalize forms of property acquisition that may be deemed unethical, such as stealing. In the same regard, a state as a civilized society will declare life as belonging to the state. In turn, it is life from which labor emanates. Thus, the use of labor to acquire wealth may be bridled when for instance the state compels its subjects to participate in community activities without any pay.

This is exemplified by mandatory government-stipulated national cleaning days.