Posted by
Playful Walrus on Thursday, July 30, 2009 6:48:20 PM
I'm always happy to see some good thinking in a letter to the editor. Diane Fallon of Irvine wrote in to the Orange County Register about another letter writer:
He says health care, food, water, clothing and a roof over our heads are all rights. They are not; they are products or goods which we all need and have the right to pursue, but we do not have a right to any of them. "A right is a natural or God-given permit received at birth, to act in one's own self-interest with total control over one's own life and property as long as others are not injured nor their property taken or damaged."
It is too bad more people don't understand that this is how the founders thought of rights.
We all have freedom of speech and religion but we cannot demand that anyone build us a stage or a church. There is no right to food, water, health care, clothing and housing, because it creates a burden on others. We can't demand that our neighbors buy our groceries or clothes, so why do so many Americans think our neighbors should pay for us to go see a doctor?
One reason is that we have not followed this principle in some areas, such as with education. How many times have you heard, "we have public schools!" - as if that was a good justification for socializing and nationalizing health insurance.
Despite popular belief that every need or want should be paid for by others, there is no such right to health care, child care, a free college education or abortion, etc. What we do have are the same basic human rights – the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
A very good letter.
Previously:
Rights Are Not Hand-Outs, and Hand-Outs Are Not Rights
Imaginary Rights