The Added-Value Argument

Locke’s second argument concerning the original acquisition of property is the added-value argument. This argument retains the basic principle that underpins the labour-mixing argument--that property rights over an object entitle the owner to whatever that object produces, and that we own our bodies and therefore our labour--but applies it to the problem of original acquisition in a different way.

When we work on an object we enhance its value. If I turn a plot of land into an orchard, then after I have worked on it it is worth much more than it was before. This added value is the product of something that I own, namely my labour. If, as Locke has said, property rights entitle the owner to whatever the property produces, and I own my labour, and the added-value is produced by my labour, then I am entitled to the added value that I have produced.

Locke argues that as nature creates things they have little value. He estimates that 99% of the usefulness of things is produced by labour rather than by nature. The closest approximation to giving us the products of our labour, the added value in the object, is therefore to give us the object itself.