Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
Summary
QUESTIONS
In the First Treatise of Government, John Locke writes:
God the Lord and Father of all, has given no one of his Children such a Property, in his peculiar Portion of the things of this World, but that he has given his needy Brother a Right to the Surplusage of his Goods; so that it cannot justly be denyed him, when his pressing Wants call for it. And therefore no Man could ever have a just power over the Life of another, by Right of property in Land or Possessions; since 'twould always be a Sin in any Man of Estate, to let his Brother perish for want of affording him Relief out of his Plenty. As Justice gives every Man a Title to the product of his honest Industry, and the fair Acquisitions of his Ancestors descended to him; so Charity gives every Man a Title to so much out of another's Plenty, as will keep him from extream want, where he has no means to subsist otherwise.
Though his account here is certainly underspecified, Locke seems to insist that any person has legitimate “Title” to enough of another person's goods sufficient for the avoidance of “extream want.” In doing so, Locke appears to gesture at the plausibility of a basic minimum: no matter what else is true, no matter what one's own labor affords, or how resources are otherwise distributed, people, at the very least, have a moral right, or “title,” to resources sufficient to subsist.
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- The Basic MinimumA Welfarist Approach, pp. ix - xviiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012