Where Do Property Rights Really Come From?

I am trying a little something different this week. While I’d like to blabber on what I’ve just read, I realize that no one really wants to read it. So I decided to go out and interview John Locke. There was no gurantee he was listening to my prayers that day, but he gave me a ring and granted my own phone interview. Think Glubdubdrib, only real.

What follows is a relevant excerpt from my interview.

John Locke: My wife’s harp playing has gotten a lot better. You know, they finally gave her a different cloud than my own.

Thomas Hamed (rolls eyes): Really?

JL: Yeah. Now I can have her other angel friends come over.

TH: That’s awesome! Listen, I wanted to ask you a few questions about your philosophy.

JL: Go for it.

TH: You see, I read The Second Treatise, and have to say I agree with your conclusions.

JL: How so?

TH: I agree with your conclusions. I agree that man has an inherent right to property, and that he should form civil society with other men to protect those property rights.

JL: Yes.

TH: You said the right to property comes from man’s industry. Elaborate on that.

JL: Yes, well, you hit the nail right on the head. Let’s say you are a native in America.

TH: Doesn’t work these days. They’re gone

JL: Okay, let’s say you are a native deep in the Amazon, where no one has reached you. You live off nature’s bounty, for she provides you with everything. Alack, you need not improve the land. You do not inherently own it, but you don’t need to. You are in a state of nature, and being that things are not as dense, you can live off nature’s bounty and never be in conflict with your neighbors. There’s no need to assign property, nor to mitigate disputes.

TH: Sounds logical. Tell me, why does right necessarily flow from industry?

JL: Because, well, it seems functional to me. Take my example of the water in the pitcher. Surely, the water in a fountain is common, but that’s only because it doesn’t do much. It’s just a bunch of molecules sitting there. In the pitcher, the man has intention to drink it. A similar concept applies to my wife’s lady friends.

TH: But you say that the right of property is natural? Why?

JL (long pause): You preposterous mongrel! You rogue! Why do you think it’s a law of nature? Didn’t God give you the will to survive? Natural law is based on what you do in a state of nature, and what God has given you.

TH: But let’s just say I had no intention of survival. Let’s just say I left the water in the fountain not out of altruism, but because I had no real will to survive. It’d strip me of any pretense to need the water to live. Then what? Do I still have an inherent right to the water?

JL: If you take it, yes. You grabbed it with your own resources, and are therefore entitled to it.

TH: That doesn’t tell me where the right came from. What if you come along and drink the water from my pitcher without asking? That’s wrong to you, but why is it wrong? What dictates how it is right and how it is wrong?

Locke said something or another, and then hung up. So I am confused. He’s too wedded to his own ideas to help me understand. Where does he derive his rights from? The Bible? It’s a great source, but let’s just say my god didn’t leave behind a sacred text. Then what?