John Locke :: Empiricists, Empiricism

In Chapter five Locke says, that the earth can be used by the people for their survival, protection, or anyway in which they could benefit from it. This is where I got a little confused. So then if everything on the earth belongs to everyone then what is individual property? I read it over and over and I’m not sure if I have the right answer but I’ll try. Everyone owns there own body, and all the work they do they do with their body. When a person works with their body on something that thing becomes their own because they did the work. And he also says that there is some sort of limit that people can’t take more than they can use. He uses acorns or other fruits as an example and says, â€Å"But how far has he given it us? To enjoy. As much as any one can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others.† (Locke 20-21) He later says that if someone has too many fruits he could trade them for money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I agree that everyone should use the earth to his or her advantage but not when it comes to endangering someone else or taking away something that someone needs more than you do. I agree that if you work with fruit trees that it is your right to eat those apples and that you should only take as many as needed. But that isn’t the case in society today. Let’s face it people are greedy and greed is something that has destroyed the world we live in. If there wasn’t any greed there wouldn’t be any murder cases or any kidnappings or robberies, etc, the list can go on and on. Another example is college acceptance. All students work for the same hope, to get accepted to a good college and hopefully gain a job that will best fulfill their needs. Say we have two identical students both scored a 1500 on their SATs and they where equally involved in their school. The only difference was that one student came from a wealthy family and the other stud ents came from a not so wealthy family. They both applied to Princeton. The outcome is that the student from the wealthy family gets enrolled as a freshman in the fall, and the other student is placed on the waiting list.