What About My Rights?
By Jan Larson (02/27/06)
Dr. Walter Williams wrote a recent commentary entitled “Bogus Rights” [1] in which he discussed the difference between a true “right,” such as the right of free speech and bogus rights such as the “right” to medical care.
There is little question that in our society more and more things are viewed as rights to which all are entitled versus things that must be earned.
As Dr. Williams mentioned, true rights are things that exist simultaneously among all and do not impose an obligation upon others. Anything that violates either of these two restrictions is not a “right” at all.
The first ten amendments to the U. S. Constitution define the “Bill of Rights.” These do meet the definition of rights. As we were taught in school (at least I was, I don’t know if this is true today) with rights come responsibilities.
We all have the right to speak freely (but not the right to be heard). We have the right to bear arms (but not the right to shoot anyone with whom we disagree) and as stated in the Declaration of Independence, we have the right to pursue happiness (but not necessarily to be happy).
As more things are viewed as rights, although they do not satisfy the above definition, they not only serve to move the country into socialistic mediocrity, but the true value of those things is lost.
There is little question that the best health care in the world is right here in the United States but we constantly hear about a health care crisis. Why? It is because access to health care, not just basic health care, but rather the most advanced (and expensive) treatments and procedures is viewed as being a right and since it is not today readily available to everyone we have a “crisis.” If one can’t pay for expensive and heroic medical procedures but instead must rely on someone else (the taxpayer) to pay, then access to those procedures certainly isn’t a right.
Many view the expectation of living a comfortable retirement (via Social Security) as a right, but for those that receive far more in payments than they ever paid into the system, their “right” comes only at the expense of others. My father paid into the Social Security system his entire working life, but died before collecting a dime. So much for his rights.
Nowhere is it written that anyone has the right not to be offended, but on many college campuses, speech codes confer such rights at the expense of constitutionally protected free speech. Political correctness in everyday life implies a right to not be offended, but again, this right only comes at the expense of restricting someone else from calling a spade a spade because someone’s feelings may be bruised.
Ironically the same liberals that howl at the notion that their privacy rights are being violated if the government is listening in on their conversations with al Qaeda are the same that will attempt to silence the right of dissent via campus speech codes.
There are some (mostly politicians) that claim that Americans have a right to a good-paying job, to “affordable” housing and to prescription drugs. Nonsense. None of these things are rights. In a free society, the job you have, the home in which you live and the prescription drugs you take are up to you, or at least they should be.
We are all born with basic rights – the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We have the right to a speedy trial and the right against self-incrimination. We have the right to own property and to speak freely. But our rights end when the obligations of others begin and as such, our true rights are few.
As America moves ever more toward a socialistic, entitlement-minded society, despite overwhelming historical evidence of the failures of such societies, we will eventually learn that costs and obligations of many of these so-called rights are very high indeed.
[1] http://tinyurl.com/zlj24
Copyright ©2006 Jan A. Larson All rights reserved.
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