Founding myths of capitalism....

[Justin Schwartz]

>
>If he was reading Locke (even indirectly), he meant the labor
>theory of value.  That is:  I am not a slave, therefore I can
>labor and keep at least some of the value of my product; of
>this, I can save some and make capital of it (capital in the
>sense of tools to make more wealth).  So the body (including
>the mind within it) is the primordial item of capital.
>
>
The labor theory of property, not value. Locke did say that 90 or 99% of the 
value of stuff improved by labor was due to the labor it embodied, but the 
first LTV is due to Sir William Petty rather than Locke; Locke's theory of 
"value" is too underdeveloped to count. He was interested in property 
entitlements, and argued that (1) I own my body and its labor, and (2) I 
therefore own what I "mix" my labor with, as long as (a) no one else has 
mixed their labor with it first, and (b) I leave enough and as good for 
others. Self-ownership is not a crazy theory, although it is a peculiar and 
rather bourgeois way of thinking about one's relationship to one's self and 
its activities--as a property right. --jks
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