Dear Scott Simon, NPR “Weekend Edition” host: you don’t win a specific policy argument just by proclaiming a grand universal right to food, health care, housing, water, or whatever. [John Cochrane, The Grumpy Economist]
Dear Scott Simon, NPR “Weekend Edition” host: you don’t win a specific policy argument just by proclaiming a grand universal right to food, health care, housing, water, or whatever. [John Cochrane, The Grumpy Economist]
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If there is a “right to eat,” wouldn’t that mean that the government could not regulate or at least drastically reduce the regulations on food, food production and eating?
The interviewer needs to chew on that.
How many times have I been driving along, listening to NPR, and almost had to pull over to the side of the road to scream my head off? And it’s always in such a *calm, dulcet tone*, so relaxed, so assured, so… infuriating. I didn’t even hear this exchange, and it’s probably good I didn’t.
Now might be a good time for me to propose NPR Traditional. NPR Traditional will face trouble getting off the ground because 1) liberals will hate it and 2) conservatives and libertarians won’t want to pay for it. But hear me out. NPR Traditional will be the sister of NPR. Both public broadcasting units, with an equal number of affiliates everywhere. If it’s true that NPR is only .00003 percent of the federal budget, this will only cause another .00003 percent in spending. NPR Traditional will feature its own team of sniffy, Ivy-educated arugula eaters, but they’ll be conservatives. Reporters will go after stories exposing the problems of overweening government, unnecessary regulations, profligate spending, open borders, liberal censorship, out-of-control multiculturalism, affirmative action and abusive lawsuits. There will be no shortage of things to report on. Show titles will include “Other Things Considered”, in which all the things declined consideration by “All Things Considered” will be considered. “Here and Now” will be matched by “The Permanent Things”. “Planet Money” will be matched by “The Rothbard Hour,” in which free market economists weigh in. For every story about a beleaguered illegal alien on NPR, NPR Traditional will answer with its own sobby story featuring the family of someone murdered by an illegal alien. NPR Traditional will maintain NPR’s funky transition music and other soothing noises. Importantly, NPR Traditional will never feature loud, carnival-barker conservative talking voices, like Rush Limbaugh. Everyone will be as cool as a cucumber.
This nonsense stems from a misinterpretation of the following passage from the Declaration of Independence:
” 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.”
Note that nowhere in this declaration is it stated that these rights are to be provided at the expense of the state (that’s you and me, by the way). These rights are simply protected by the state; you must still earn your life by supporting it, maintain your liberty by judicious exercise of common sense, and find happiness by your own means.
The misinterpretation that these rights are guaranteed by the state is what is fueling the demand for more public welfare/assistance programs. Currently, its the right to live without effort; free food, free housing, free clothing, et cetera. Next it will be the right to achieve happiness without endeavor. After all, it’s a declared right, yes?.
I think it’s high time we modify our declaration just a bit, as follows:
“…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 by one’s own effort.”
Yeah. That’s better….
So are they gonna have folks to lazy to breathe placed in ventilators?