What Is Property? · Chapter
Third Proposition explained
Proudhon argues that property is impossible because production is proportional to labor, not to property.
What happens
Proudhon argues that property is impossible because production is proportional to labor, not to property. He demonstrates through arithmetic that when proprietors withdraw from labor, total production falls, and their income must decrease accordingly. The maximum income of an idle proprietor is limited to a fraction of the product of one laborer, and since all have an equal right of occupancy, the right of increase cancels out, rendering property impossible.
Themes in this chapter
Labor and Exploitation
Proudhon argues that production depends on labor, not property, and that idle proprietors exploit laborers by claiming income without contributing to production.
Possession vs. Property
The chapter contrasts the right of occupancy (possession) with the right of increase (property), showing that the latter is unsustainable and ultimately annihilated by the former.
Characters to notice
- Pierre Joseph Proudhon
Author and central voice; presents the third proposition and the arithmetical demonstration of property's impossibility.
Key passages
“Property is impossible, because, with a given capital, Production is proportional to labor, not to property.”
Property cannot exist because the amount produced depends on the work done, not on how much land or capital one owns.
This is the core thesis of the chapter, stating that labor, not ownership, drives production.
“The maximum income of a proprietor is equal to the square root of the product of one laborer (some number being agreed upon to express this product).”
The most a landowner can justly earn from rent is a small fraction of what one worker produces, specifically the square root of that worker's output.
Proudhon uses a mathematical formula to limit the income of idle proprietors, arguing that their claim is inherently limited by the laws of production.