Thread: Are We Incrementally Losing Our Freedom?

Originally Posted by hardblues

All good points, but, in starting this thread, the intention wasn't to focus on health care...I would hope to re-direct to the issue of individual rights as related to a seemingly large and growing federal government and used the issues above to see what you thought...but, as you please

I'll try -

Part of the problem is in the understanding of "rights" and what rights are protected by our founding documents.

The Declaration only mentions "certain" rights that are "inalienable" in that they were "endowed" to us by our "Creator."

And among these rights are "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

The Declaration then says that the purpose of governments is to "secure" those rights. I doubt it was ever intended that we should come up with an endless list of rights to be secured, because at some point those rights may be conflicting.

I think the one thing to consider about a right is the impact it might have on another. If the free exercise of "your" right has any impact on the rights of another, does it truly fit the definition of a right as meant in the Declaration?

For instance, using health care as an example - if health care is a "right", then can one freely exercise that right all of the time without infringing on the "rights" of a health-care provider? In other words - you have a service I can benefit from. I have a right to that service therefore I can/ will take it from you with or without your consent. Either overtly by force, or covertly through legislation. In this example, one person exercises their "right" at the expense of another. Which seems to me to invalidate it as a right by definition. To further define this, I think there is a difference between a right to "seek out" a service, and a "right" to a service.

Hope that was all clear.