[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 14:45:55 -0700
‘Brian,’ in response to Judy’s having said that health care was a right,
and that moreover, it was in the interest of any nation to provide it
(which I took her to mean that even if it weren’t a right it would be
prudent for a state to do so):
…you're wrong. In this country we've gone mad with invented rights…I
ask, what kind of right? An objective human right (something U.S.
Framers like [sic] to call an "inalienable" right…
*We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America. [Preamble to the US
Constitution)]
[RP] The ordinary meaning of ‘welfare’ is ‘health, happiness, or
prosperity; well-being.’ (It does not mean ‘welfare’ as in ‘He is on
welfare.’)
*We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…
[Declaration of Independence].
There are no footnotes, parenthetical qualifications, or escape clauses
here. It may be that ‘Brian’ believes that a right to life exists only
where there is no threat to life; that is, that people have a right to
life only if they have no life-threatening diseases, conditions or
injuries, which, of course, would make any so-called right to life, mere
words, a rhetorical flourish that some old guys inserted to afford a
pleasant alliteration, not thinking that anybody would really read the
thing. Or, he may believe that, if a person has any life-threatening
disease or injury, he or she has a right to life (i.e., to be treated
for it) only if they can pay for such treatment out of their own pocket,
‘right to life,’ be damned.; that, e.g., if Bill Gates and a
recently-fired Microsoft janitor were to arrive at the emergency room at
the same time, the doors would open wide for Gates and slam shut on the
janitor. Maybe; I don’t know. But if he does believe this, his notion of
justice is certainly different from mine.
Let me put this simply: if people have a right to life but do not have
the right to treatment that would preserve their lives (so that only
‘healthy’ people have a right to life), then the right to life itself is
a fraud and a sham.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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