Rights vs. Wishes

[WadeFillingame]

Rights Versus Wishes
Walter E. Williams | Posted: Apr 20, 2016 12:01 AM

Here is what presidential aspirant Sen. Bernie Sanders said: "I believe that health care is a right of all people." President Barack Obama declared that health care "should be a right for every American." The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: "Every person has a right to adequate health care." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his January 1944 message to Congress, called for "the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health." And it is not just a health care right that people claim. There are rights to decent housing, good food and a decent job, and for senior citizens, there's a right to prescription drugs. In a free and moral society, do people have these rights? Let's look at it.

In the standard historical usage of the term, a "right" is something that exists simultaneously among people. As such, a right imposes no obligation on another. For example, the right to free speech is something we all possess. My right to free speech imposes no obligation upon another except that of noninterference. Similarly, I have a right to travel freely. Again, that right imposes no obligation upon another except that of noninterference.

Contrast those rights to free speech and travel with the supposed rights to medical care and decent housing. Those supposed rights do impose obligations upon others. We see that by recognizing that there is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy. If one does not have money to pay for a medical service or decent housing and the government provides it, where do you think the government gets the money?
CARTOONS | Steve Kelley
View Cartoon

If you agree that there is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy and that Congress does not have any resources of its very own, the only way for Congress to give one American something is to first take it from some other American. In other words, if one person has a right to something he did not earn, it requires another person's not having a right to something he did earn.

Let's apply this bogus concept of rights to my right to speak and travel freely. Doing so, in the case of my right to free speech, it might impose obligations on others to supply me with an auditorium, microphone and audience. My right to travel freely might require that others provide me with resources to purchase airplane tickets and hotel accommodations. If I were to demand that others make sacrifices so that I can exercise my free speech and travel rights, I suspect that most Americans would say, "Williams, yes, you have rights to free speech and traveling freely, but I'm not obligated to pay for them!"

As human beings, we all have certain natural rights. Of the rights we possess, we have a right to delegate them to government. For example, we all have a natural right to defend ourselves against predators. Because we possess that right, we can delegate it to government. By contrast, I do not have a right to take one person's earnings to give to another. Because I have no such right, I cannot delegate it to government. If I did take your earnings to provide medical services for another, it would rightfully be described and condemned as an act of theft. When government does the same, it's still theft, albeit legalized theft.

If you're a Christian or a Jew, you should be against these so-called rights. When God gave Moses the eighth commandment -- "Thou shalt not steal" -- I am sure that he did not mean "thou shalt not steal unless there is a majority vote in Congress." The bottom line is medical care, housing and decent jobs are not rights at all, at least not in a free society; they are wishes. As such, I would agree with most Americans -- because I, too, wish that everyone had good medical care, decent housing and a good job.

[url=http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/][color=blue]Walter Williams essays[/color][/url]  I really like this guys thoughts and writings.

[Hutch]

I believe that folks have the right of PURSUIT of these things.

[Pole Lock]

Turns out freedom IS free.

[simmich]

Love you Wade  :cool:

[WadeFillingame]

A Superior Vision
Walter E. Williams - Apr 27, 2016

Last month, I celebrated the beginning of my 81st year of life. For nearly half that time, I have been writing a nationally syndicated column on many topics generating reader responses that go from supportive to quite ugly. So I thought a column making my vision, values and views explicit might settle some of the controversy.

My initial premise, when looking at all human issues, is that each of us owns himself. I am my private property, and you are your private property. If you agree with that premise, then certain human actions are moral and others immoral. The reason murder is immoral is that it violates private property. Similarly, rape and theft are immoral, for they, too, violate private property. Most Americans will agree that murder and rape violate people's property rights and are hence immoral. But there may not be so much agreement about theft. Let's look at it.

Theft is when a person's property is taken from him -- through stealth, force, intimidation, threats or coercion -- and given to another to whom it does not belong. If a person took your property -- even to help another person who is in need -- it would be called theft. Suppose three people agreed to that taking. Would it be deemed theft? What if 100,000 or several hundred million people agreed to do so? Would that be deemed theft? Another way to ask these questions is: Does a consensus establish morality?

Self-ownership can offer solutions to many seemingly moral/ethical dilemmas. One is the sale of human organs. There is a severe shortage of organs for transplantation. Most people in need of an organ die or become very ill while they await an organ donation. Many more organs would become available if there were a market for them. Through the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, Congress has made organ sales illegal. Congress clearly has the power to prevent organ sales, but does it have a right? The answer to that question comes by asking: Who owns your organs? One test of ownership is whether you have the right to sell something. In the case of organs, if it is Congress that owns our organs, then we have no right to sell them. That would be stealing from Congress.
CARTOONS | Glenn McCoy
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People have the right to take chances with their own lives. People do not have a right to take chances with the lives of others. That is why laws that mandate that cars have brakes are consistent with liberty and seat belt laws are not. You might say, "Aha, Williams, we've got you there because if you don't wear a seat belt and you have an accident and turn into a vegetable, society is burdened with taking care of you!" That's not a problem of liberty. It's a problem of socialism. Nobody should be forced to take care of me for any reason. If government assumes the job of taking care of us, then Congress can control just about every aspect of our lives. When I was a rebellious teenager, my mother frequently told me, "As long as you're living in my house and I'm paying the bills, you're going to do as I say." That kind of thinking is OK for children, but not for emancipated adults.

I have only touched the surface of ideas of self-ownership. The immorality associated with violation of the principle of self-ownership lies at the root of problems that could lead to our doom as a great nation. In fiscal 2015, total government spending -- federal, state and local -- was about $6.41 trillion. That's about 36 percent of our gross domestic product. The federal government spent $3.69 trillion. At least two-thirds of that spending can be described as government's taking the property of one American and giving it to another. That's our moral tragedy: We've become a nation of people endeavoring to live at the expense of others -- in a word, a nation of thieves.

[Johnny-O!]

Bill Clintons plan for Globalization falls in line with Williams line of thinking. Steal jobs from US workers and use communist slaves in China. The shareholders benefit handsomely. The Kingpins running the show manipulate their currency so that it is greatly overvalued vs the USD. Now they can run around the world buying up White Elephants. Gotta go, the boss is calling for me to move the shopping carts at the new Walmart they just built downtown. :beer:

[Hutch]

[quote author=Johnny-O! link=topic=37990.msg159904#msg159904 date=1462289146]
Bill Clintons plan for Globalization falls in line with Williams line of thinking. Steal jobs from US workers and use communist slaves in China. The shareholders benefit handsomely. The Kingpins running the show manipulate their currency so that it is greatly overvalued vs the USD. Now they can run around the world buying up White Elephants. Gotta go, the boss is calling for me to move the shopping carts at the new Walmart they just built downtown. :beer:
[/quote]

Your job can not be stolen from you. That job belongs to the employer, not the employee :)

[Johnny-O!]

Hutch my friend. I hate to break it to you, when you call the 800# for your bank and someone answers in the Phillipines; can't speak English well, doesn't know anything but "Oh, so sorry you are having this problem" and has to get 2-3 managers to help you the bitch stole someone's job.  :beer:

[Pole Lock]

[quote author=Johnny-O! link=topic=37990.msg159958#msg159958 date=1462408489]
Hutch my friend. I hate to break it to you, when you call the 800# for your bank and someone answers in the Phillipines; can't speak English well, doesn't know anything but "Oh, so sorry you are having this problem" and has to get 2-3 managers to help you the bitch stole someone's job.  :beer:
[/quote]

Have to agree. I was living in Detroit in the 90s when GM, et al, moved thousands of jobs to Mexico and then China all in the name of Holy Greed. Thousands of families were affected.

As I understand it, many people living in, say, Flint, felt something had been stolen from them.

And now Hyundais are made in Alabama! Ha!

[WadeFillingame]

[quote author=Pole Lock link=topic=37990.msg159961#msg159961 date=1462413283]
Have to agree. I was living in Detroit in the 90s when GM, et al, moved thousands of jobs to Mexico and then China all in the name of Holy Greed. Thousands of families were affected.

As I understand it, many people living in, say, Flint, felt something had been stolen from them.

And now Hyundais are made in Alabama! Ha!
[/quote]

The UAW was as culpable as bad management by the Big 3 in the collapse of Detroit.  But that's a whole other conversation.