Locke’s and Karl Marx’s Theories

Karl Marx believes, concerning his book Portable Karl Marx, that private property results from an estranged worker’s product or the alienated labour. The basis of the private property, according to Karl Marx, is based on the idea of workers labouring to produce products belonging to other people and getting paid less compared to the value of the created product. The private product is the result of labour and the external relation between nature and the worker. According to Marx, he believes that labourer should own the product of his labour. This contradicts with the capitalist system, where the labour product belongs to someone else and not the labourer. The compensation the labourer gets is always less compared to the product that has been produced. The capitalist is depicted as an exploiter who ultimately benefits from the property produced by others. According to Marx, political economy exists because of the private property. Political economy has failed in educating citizens on the private property laws.

Karl Marx made a terrible mistake by assuming that people do not feel satisfied and happy during offering labour for others to benefit. This is because there are people who believe in a product, and they end up labouring for that. In contrary to what Marx believes, there are people who get happiness in working for the benefit of others.

Rousseau paid attention to the aspect of totalitarian in The Basic Political Writings. He thought that social issue and order should be the responsibility of ordinary people as well as responsibilities of their political destinies. Rousseau called for a reduction in the interests on private activities and absorbing the individual in the collective, state life. According to Rousseau, private property was to be abolished, though it seemed impractical. Private property was to be regulated in a way that men would not be distracted from their common allegiance by the economic rivalries. Public games and ceremonies were to replace the private amusement that Rousseau thought were destructive to social unity. The community takes on its members’ goods. This act of property transfer has the public advantage.

In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke describes that people live under the law of nature. There is the absence of the government, and these people enforce themselves. They establish rights on property and use the money. They show signs of a developed economy. The word property is used by Locke in both narrow and wide senses. Human aspirations and interests are covered with Locke’s broad sense of property. Narrowly, property sense may refer to material and tangible goods. According to Locke, property is derived from labour and is a natural right. The labour exerted in production of goods justifies the ownership of property and goods by the individual.  Value of the society is a result of labour expended in the process of creating goods. Locke argues that goods provided by nature remain to be of less value until some labour is expended in the production process. Locke comes up with a labour theory of property. According to his theory, labour exertion upon the natural resources creates a property.

Applying labour creates property ownership according to Locke. He believes that the government is preceded by the property. Karl Marx in his own social theory criticized theory of property according to Locke. Theorists have been appealed by the Locke’s perspective. It has the ability of justifying the widely varying systems on property. Labourers have a right in private property according to Locke. This is because of the individual’s efforts to mix their labour with free materials to produce products.

John Locke’s and Karl Marx’s theories on property can be compared and contrasted. Karl is known for the communism theory. Both Karl and Locke had divergent views on whether private property was a natural right or not. Locke believed that it was a natural right. He believed that God’s gift to man became his own property when he added labour to it. It was the government’s responsibility to protect the private property of individuals according to Locke. According to Marx, capitalist class possessed all the property, and individuals were not granted property because of their labour.