Labor and Property

One of the most interesting ideas proposed by John Locke in his Second Treatise of Government  is his idea that the exertion of labor on a thing which is common results in ownership of that property.  Lock says in "Of Property," "Thus labour, in the beginning, gave a right of property where every any one was pleased to employ it upon what was common" (27).  Indeed it is almost impossible to imagine what this would look like now, or even in Locke's time, if we're being honest, but I do appreciate what I believe to be at the heart of this idea.  That is the notion that inherent in labor is the  right to some sort of ownership over, or at least claim to, the thing produced.  Marx's idea of alienation: the worker being cut off from the product of her labor and the subsequent disfunction that results is perfectly applicable here.  In this way I think that Locke provides a very valuable perspective for the modern reader who can easily see these problems of alienation in society today.