Friday, April 21, 2017

Rights vs Moral Obligations



You don't have the right to another person's services. That is slavery. You also do not have a right to another person's property. That is robbery. You don't have a right to food . . . or shelter . . . or any material possession. Rights are inalienable freedoms and they are enumerated only to describe infringements so that those infringements may be avoided and disallowed.

There is no right to education or healthcare. You are born with every right you will ever have. Freedom of movement,  self-defense, to be secure in your property, to express your opinion, to worship as you choose, to be alive. These are rights and cannot be granted by government fiat. Your rights only end when they infringe upon another's. Yelling fire in a theater if there is no fire endangers lives; it is an infringement. Stealing infringes on the right to be secure in your property. As do direct taxes like property tax and income tax. A tax on gasoline to build public roads allows choice.

Arguably there is no direct right to carry a gun. It is a combination of the right to be secure in your property and the right to self-defense. A firearm is simply the most effective tool for self-defense at this time.  Perhaps in the future the "right" to bear arms will mean phasers or disintegration beams.

Voluntarily helping to provide people with education, healthcare, food, shelter, etc is moral and compassionate and should be encouraged. Doing so by force, especially by proxy, is immoral and despicable.  Folks today are confusing rights and moral obligations. Doing what is moral and responsible is rarely the same as doing what is easy. Easy solutions are the path to tyranny.