Monday, August 10, 2009

It's not a right.

I am pro healthcare. I work in healthcare IT. I wish everyone could get the best care possible all the time. But I don't think it's a right. And if it's not a right then why are we paying for others rewards?

Life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. Those are our inalienable rights. Nothing more. We are not entitled to things, but to the freedom to act. I have the right to work to feed myself and my loved ones. Clothe us, shelter us. I don't have the right to food, cloths and shelter.

If something is a right it is someone else's obligation to provide. If you have the right to food, I have the obligation to feed you. If it's a right you don't need to work for it. Isn't that in it's simplest form slavery? That I should be forced to feed you? No need to be grateful, it is your right to be fed. No need to ask for help, no need for the generous, caring and helpful. You have rights!


*I'm deleting the rest of what I wrote because it muddies the real point I want to make. No one has the right to things. If you work and achieve wealth and wish to share it by all means do. It's what a kind person does. But you cannot be kind if your wealth is taken from you because someone else has a right to it. That's just not kindness.