Monday, October 14, 2019

Locke and ex appropriation

"Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature hath placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other men: for this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to, at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others." Locke here clearly has no conception of the systemic theft of labor's exchange value rather then it's specific material form thru "voluntary " Mutual self interest Voluntary exchange turned into its Systemic opposite Note state of nature By contrast the state of civil society Presents opportunities for Appropriating the value produced By the work or part of the work of fellow humans