If I remember correctly, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were only some among other unalienable rights… Locke, and probably Jefferson, obviously included property as one of the other rights… Also, though it has been decades since I read Locke, I seem to remember that he saw the right to property as contingent on the necessity and means of “appropriating” it, which I think he defined as an individual’s labour. That would suggest that the unalienable right is actually only the right to gain property through one’s labor, which in turn implies that property gained by inheritance, I.e. without the recipient’s labor, is not an unalienable right.
If I remember correctly- Locke wrote "life, liberty and property"
Jefferson etal changed it to "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" which indicates to me that righ to property wasn't quite as axiomatic to them. Property can be taken away, given away, bought and sold. But life and liberty or pursuit of happiness are not goods in that manner
If I remember correctly, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were only some among other unalienable rights… Locke, and probably Jefferson, obviously included property as one of the other rights… Also, though it has been decades since I read Locke, I seem to remember that he saw the right to property as contingent on the necessity and means of “appropriating” it, which I think he defined as an individual’s labour. That would suggest that the unalienable right is actually only the right to gain property through one’s labor, which in turn implies that property gained by inheritance, I.e. without the recipient’s labor, is not an unalienable right.
If I remember correctly- Locke wrote "life, liberty and property"
Jefferson etal changed it to "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" which indicates to me that righ to property wasn't quite as axiomatic to them. Property can be taken away, given away, bought and sold. But life and liberty or pursuit of happiness are not goods in that manner