[quote=pertinazzio]anything that costs money can’t be a right. for instance the poorest possible society can grant all their citizens the right to free speech, association, religion etc. no matter how poor the society, the citizens can still have exercise those rights. on the other hand if in very poor societies you grant a right to universal high quality education, health-care, nutrition no will be able to exercise their so-called rights for a lack of resouces. now a society may decide that decency requires it to give all citizens health care, a job, etc. but that supposes society has the wherewithall to provide those things. Real rights are independent of society’s wealth.[/quote]
I thought this was a pretty good comment.
Sure it would be *nice* to give everyone everything, for free. In fact, it would be even nicer to give it to anyone, of any legal status, that found their way into the country. But why stop there? Why be so selfish and discriminatory as to only want to provide healthcare to folks in the U.S? Certainly healthcare is a universal *human* right, right? Perhaps U.S. taxpayers should be obligated to cover *everyone’s* healthcare, everywhere in the world.
Without going to that silly extreme, I think you can start getting into trouble when you confuse comforts with “rights”.
For example, are these also rights?:
Electricity
Telephone
Cable/Satellite TV (for folks in remote locations)
Heating
High-speed Internet
Transportation
Dental
Orthodontia
Clothing
Entertainment
Swim Lessons (“it’s a safety issue”)
Access to health clubs
Daycare
Personal Automobile
Liver transplant for alcoholic
Care for Octomom’s 14 kids
