Rights and Government

Here in the USA we have a unique form of government founded on principles that no other government created before or sense has ever been based. This form of government was codified in two very short documents, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

Let’s first discuss why a government exists. A government is loosely defined as: The Body or group which exercises the control and administration of public policy in a political unit. Most if not all societies have regarded man as a sacrificial means to the ends of others, and society as an end in itself. The common characteristic of most societies and hence their government’s is the fact that the government stands above the moral law. To put it succinctly whatever the government deems as moral is moral. Governments through history impressed upon individuals that self-sacrificial devotion to social duty was regarded as the main purpose of ethics in man’s earthly existence.

To quote Ayn Rand, "The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America was the subordination of society to moral law.... All previous systems had held that man’s life belongs to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, and that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of society, which may be revoked at any time." Our Forefathers held a different belief that a man’s life is his by right, and that a right is the property of an individual. They believed that society as such has no rights. They wrote about and established the government of the United States based on the idea that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights.

A "right" is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self- sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action-which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.)

If you read the Bill of Rights in the US constitution, you’ll note that it limits the government not individuals. You should also note that it limits the government from infringing on peoples actions, it does not limit objects. You don’t have the freedom to have something you have the freedom to do something. Your rights/freedoms are meaningless unless you have the right to the consequences of your actions. Hence property rights are a right to an action, they are not a insurance that a man will earn any property, but only an insurance that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values.

Go read the The Bill of Rights. What is common among all of them. They limit Government not individuals. None of these rights depends upon the action or property of another individual.

There is no moral ground for any individual to take the labor or force another to do any specific action. Since acquiring property is the result of the actions of individuals, no other individual has the right to the property of another.

Consider the eight listed economic rights from the 1960 Democratic Party platform, which mirror the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.

2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.

3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

4. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home and abroad.

5. The right of every family to a decent home.

6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accidents and unemployment.

8. The right to a good education.

Above it was clearly stated that an individual has the freedom to the results of his own actions. Let’s look at the right to travel. If you have a right to travel, then you have the right to acquire means to travel. In the US that usually means a car. You have the right to own a car. You do not have the right to force others to give you a car, or if your car is broken to fix your car. Hence an auto mechanic has the right to be paid for his services; nobody has the right to force him to repair their car unless the mechanic voluntarily chooses to do so for whatever compensation is agreed upon. The mechanic may if he chooses offer his service for free, but is under no moral obligation to give away his service. You do not have the right to use force to make him fix your car.

Considering our "Healthcare Crisis" let’s just examine #6. Does an individual have the right to the labor of another without just compensation? The answer is clearly NO. You have a right to life, hence your body is your own, not somebody else’s. Just like the car in our example above, if your body is somehow broken you do not have a right to have a mechanic (doctors, nurses, hospital owners, and drug company share holders) fix it. How then can you have a "right" to adequate medical care? Your medical care depends upon the property and actions of other individuals. You have no right to another person’s labor so have no right to adequate health care.

Considering #5, you have a right to a decent home, but you do not have the right to force others to provide you with one.

Considering #7 You have the right to a good education, but you do not have the right to force others to provide you with one.

All of the Economic rights listed above are not rights, but means for government to convince people to give up their rights. All of these so called Economic Rights depend upon taking the labor of one person and giving it to another. To make this more clear, read Article 29 from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

The UN believes that society can subject and limit individual rights to secure the "rights" of others. In other words society has the right to your labor to make sure others have property.

None of the activities of Obama (and most of Bush’s activities), corporate bailouts, healthcare, taking over GM, forcing Chrysler into a deal with Fiat, etc. are moral, or even constitutional. While we are distracted from the true nature and actions of our government over so-called but non-existent economic rights, we are missing the degradation of our political and property rights.

The wealthy, gun owners, property owners, drug companies, etc. are not a threat to other individual’s rights or freedom. A entity who resorts to physical force, fraud, etc. and violates the rights of others is a criminal-and men have legal protection against him. Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man’s freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men.

Obviously our government no longer believes in the principles the US was founded. The UN has never believed in those principles and even clearly states that individuals only have the rights that Law allows. Think about what it means to have the rest of the world which doesn't believe in our founding principles, determine what our laws should mean, or what we should have to do, or force their beliefs upon us.

Our government was created to protect the rights of individuals, not groups, not society, but individuals. How can any of the actions of our government over the receint past be considered to be doing what our government was instituted to do. Jefferson may have been right and from time to time the tree of liberty............

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