n, labor, and what is common, the resources of the earth, to create personal property. What is added to the goods of the earth to redefine them as "property" is labor. Once labor is added to the mix, the common becomes the specific. The labor that is "annexed" comes about when human beings remove something from the "state of nature." (Locke 19) For example, if a human being chops down-a tree, fashioning it into a chair, what was once common to all (the tree) is now invested with labor and is the sole property of the person who had made it.
According to Locke, it is "the taking any part of what is common, and removing it out of the state nature leaves it in, which begins the property" (Locke 19). Without the taking of what is common to all, the earth is of no use to anyone. Thus, he continues, "the labor that was mine, removing them out of that common state they were in, hath fixed my property in them." (Locke 20) Moreover, Locke argues, it is not necessary to get the approval of the commoners in advance to taking what you can. The "original law of nature" is that which makes it okay for one to use labor to extract his or her property from the earth.
The extraction of property from the earth should be limited only by what an individual can enjoy and anything beyond that
is 'more than his share, and belongs to others." (Locke 21) But again, he claims, "as much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of," that much is his property. (Locke 21) It is commanded by God, suggests Locke, that men and women labor, to "subdue the earth" and put something into it--that is,, labor. (Locke 21) Thus the value of the earth's resources is relative to the labor that goes into them as they are transformed into property. Locke writes that--it is "labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing" and that "labour makes the far greatest part of the value of things." (Locke 25-26)
Both Mar...