The labor theory of property or labor theory of appropriation or labor theory of ownership is a natural law theory that holds that property originally comes about by the exertion of labor upon natural resources. It is also called the principle of first appropriation or the homestead principle.
In his Second Treatise on Government, the philosopher John Locke asked by what right an individual can claim to own one part of the world, when, according to the Bible, God gave the world to all humanity in common. He answered that persons own themselves and therefore their own labor. When a person works, that labor enters into the object. Thus, the object becomes the property of that person.
Read more about Labor Theory Of Property: Exclusive Ownership and Creation, Enclosure Vs Mixing Labor, Acquisition Vs Mixing Labor
Famous quotes containing the words labor, theory and/or property:
“Foster the labor of our country by an undeviating metallic currency ... always recollecting that if labor is depressed neither commerce nor manufactures can flourish, as they are both based upon the production of labor, produced from the earth, or the mineral world.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“A theory if you hold it hard enough
And long enough gets rated as a creed....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It is a well-settled principle of the international code that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without giving just cause of war.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)