It is easy to declare a new "right." The challenge is paying for it. For every "right" declared by an enlightened progressive, some other party has a duty to provide it
Consider the invented rights of modern-day leftists:
Right to food, housing, healthcare, to violate internationally recognized borders, a "living wage" (whatever that is).
Now look at the rights mentioned by the founders:
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, free press, free speech, free worship. Even the Bill of Rights is not so much a list of what you are entitled to as it is a an admonishment to the Federal Government stating what it must refrain from doing to you.
Liberal "Rights" Cost Money, God-Given Ones Do Not
See the difference? The founders did not draw up a contract that binds the government and taxpayers to give you anything. Your government and your fellow man owe you nothing but to leave you alone to your lawful pursuits. Your rights, given to you by God and guaranteed under the constitution, cost me nothing.
Liberals Have it Bass-Akwards (as usual)
Liberals have stood this concept upon its head: Government must be left alone to do whatever it pleases in pursuit of what it thinks the populace needs. Rights don't come from some invisible, unfair meany in the heavens, they come from government!
I'm tired of progressive do-gooders trying to erase every ill and wipe away every tear with my money.
If you want to guarantee those who refuse to work three squares and a roof over their heads, great! Start a charity and collect voluntary contributions. There are enough soft-headed people in this country that you could probably make a go of it.
Life's not fair! I'll never make as much money playing the fiddle as Charlie Daniels
A good government doesn't guarantee you decent housing and a good job. It provides an even playing field where you can go as far as your own efforts and initiative take you. Picking favorites and wasting taxpayer money on chimeric programs narrows that field and fills it with potholes.
The referees are now tripping some players while pushing others over the goal line.
Salon - Economic Rights
8 comments:
AMEN!! I have had a few long arguments about this, and at the end they thought I was so smart to have figured out that the Constitution is the way to go. DUH!!! The Founders had it right.
I think EVERY American citizen has a right to food, housing, healthcare, and a living wage to be able to purchase all the above. Conservatives will not let go of the notion liberals don't work. We do work very hard and just want our paychecks to be able to buy the food, pay the mortgage,(if the banks will start lending then people can be homeowners)and have some leftover after paying the HC premiums the insurance giants demand from us. Thats fair isn't it? Nobody of sound mind wants to live off the government, its not enough money to buy toilet paper to wipe your butt with! :-).
There is a difference between liberals helping the poor and what the conservatives want to believe. Even Jesus helped the poor...Don't make fun of me, I'm dead serious.
Thanks TKZ!
Sue, My wife and I give to charity, because we believe in helping the poor.
My point is more a constitutional one and an exposition of just what a right is. I'm not saying all liberals are deadbeats and conservatives are all responsible. That would be nuts and flat out wrong.
I just think the concept of rights gets thrown around way too carelessly.
If you're going to guarantee people some material good, some other people have to provide it.
Your right to food... does that extend to my right to eat transfats? Or does the Nanny Government have a say there?
Your right to housing... does that extend to my spare bedroom or am I just supposed to cut you a check?
Your right to healthcare...does that extend to my paying for your poor choices, lack of exercise, three pack a day and a six pack of beer habit? Or does government get to come in decide who lived healthy and who didn't, and who gets what procedure done?
Right to a living wage? Nice concept...living wage, what exactly is a "living wage"? No problem with workfare...it's welfare I have a problem with.
What about my right to keep what I earn and allocate what I deem appropriate to the charities of my choice? In your world there is no freedom, no rights, the government knows best and decides what we do, what we keep, which doctors we get to see, and which "charities" get the government dole and which dont.
The problem is we can't pay for what we got, let alone expand the programs and create new ones. I'd like a Lamborghini, but alas my budget doesn't allow... if only the government approached finance the way we do. You can't buy stuff with money you don't have.
Of course if I operated the way the government does I'd get that Lamborghini and let my grandkids worry about paying for it. Thought the housing crisis was bad? Wait til foreign powers stop buying American debt.
Silverfiddle is correct, all of your "rights" come with a cost to others. Freedom and Government are inversely proportional...if you want to persuade anyone to your point of view, find me a case where it's not.
~Finntann~
The only way the government can give rights to all is to take rights away from others. Here in America, the government cannot bestow rights because it is NOT part of their job description.
The Founding Fathers said that among the rights bestowed by our Creator is the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. The operative word there is "PURSUIT". We have the right to pursue happiness but we are NOT guaranteed that we will achieve it, that is up to each individual, but if you are foolish enough to rely on government to be happy, I can guarantee that you will NOT.
Reverend: What you just said is I think the main reason many urban liberals are so angry. The dems have been promising them so much for so long and they still don't have squat. You think they'd realize by now that their leaders are full of it...
So the Right to Life doesn't equal eating?
and yes the world isn't fair but is that why Republicans use the power of government to ensure the Feudal Kleptocrats continue to grind people down and because they view the poor as strays?
Gene: "right to life" ie not aborting babies, doesn't require anyone else to pay or provide anything. A right to food does. See the difference? That is my point.
The invented rights I mention (to a house, food, "living wage") impose a cost on society. If the society decides to bear it and can afford it, fine.
Northern Europe is a great example. They have voted themselves a big welfare state and are almost as deep in debt as we are. The only thing keeping them above water is North Sea Crude revenue and us picking up their security tab.
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