[Peace-discuss] EWJ and Locke

[Bob Illyes]

Incidentally, Wayne refers to Locke's premise regarding the source of 
property rights when Wayne writes "the idea of personal property rights 
starts with you yourself.  All rights start with the idea that you own your 
body as an individual, that you are not property of the state."

When Locke extends this to finite resources, however, he is on thin ice. He 
gives the example of water in a community well becoming ones property when 
one invests ones labor in it by drawing out a bucket of water. But 
supposing I walked up to the well with a giant sucking machine, took out 
all the water, and claimed that it was my property because I had drawn it 
from the well. Clearly, I would get some argument when I tried to sell it 
back to the other well users, and rightly so.

Bob