The positive right game.

A positive right is defined as a social obligation that must be met by society. Unlike natural rights, like the right to free speech or the right to self defense, these rights are not inherent to our being. They are not granted by our creator or by nature. They are granted by the whims of man. They can be as inane as you'd like. Anything from a right to a ham sandwich to a right to free healthcare.

So here is the game, think of something you want but don't want to pay for and then declare that it's a basic human right. Sound easy? It is! Let's play.

I declare I have a right to 2 cheeseburgers every Tuesday.

 

The right to breath?

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SwKxUz7osM"]THE NO.1 IDIOT OF THE OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS - YouTube[/ame]

 

I declare the right to have free air-conditioning. It gets pretty hot here during the summer and I don't want to pay for it because it's obviously a necessity of life.

 

Haha I remember seeing that OWS protester.

See he gets it. It's a fun game!

Try to imagine that you are a special little snowflake and the world must cater to your every want or need. That will help you play the game.

 

Can I or anyone else grant you that right? Nope, you already have that right. That would be a natural or negative right. Like the right to free speech or the right to free exercise of religion.

Here is an example: If I'm sick, people should be forced to take care of me because the world should bend to my needs. Now that's a positive right!

 

If everyone was born under the same economic conditions or had the same quality of parents or the same potential for higher learning, everyone would be able to attain a Masters degree in anything they wanted.

Therefore, I think people should be awarded Master's in whatever field they think they would have liked to pursue and for as many fields as they think they would have pursued. Free Master's degrees for everyone is a human right.

Wow... being a liberal psychopath is pretty easy!

 

Easy game, and easy to manipulate the masses.

Use 5 word sentances.

Make it simple for a 8th grader to understand

And keep them fearfull.

 

I'm feeling the right to a ham sandwich coming on.

Someone needs to stop oppressing me and get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. I just have to figure out who is oppressing me first.

 

Ignorance of the right is really worrying.

Ok. You have the right to life. But what do you need to be accomplished this right?

- Health
- Food
- Shelter
- Clothes

If one of this miss what is going on in your right to life?

 

I feel the right to win the lottery so I can travel the world for the rest of my life. Work is so overrated and I should not be shackled down to one spot. It's my right!!!

 

Actually, if a government and/or air corporation(s) sucked up all air on Earth and then made you pay to breathe, you wouldn't have the "right" (or the power) to breathe

 

I WANT - I WANT!!! - the right to

1. not work but be able to mooch off everyone that does
2. call everyone a racist that says or does anything that doesn't please me at the time
3. free, unrestricted, top-notch, medical services for life
4. regular checks in the mail sufficient to cover spending whims ("mad money")
5. buy legal weed
6. limo service (why not???)
7. sue people that bother me - at no cost to me
8. shoot intruders on my property with impunity
9. think and say other things than what the current whims of the Democrats and media dictate
10. sane national leaders and a constitutional government that aren't hellbent on taking over my life and the world

 

So you're arguing that good health, free food, free housing, and free clothes are all human rights and should all be paid for by the taxpayers?
No, sorry.
Natural rights mean that something that others are forbidden to interfere with. They have no obligation to provide assistance in achieving it.

 

I have a right to the money I have earned. Nobody should have to pay any taxes.
I also have a right to eat. So it's government funded ham sammich time.

How will they pay for it without taxes? I have a right to not have to worry about such things...

 

And your rights are only violated if I or the government stand in the way of you providing these things for yourself. Look, positive rights are a joke. That's the point of this game. Let's see what else you have to provide me under your idiotic ideology.

I also have the right to self defense, what do I need to accomplish this right.

-A fire arm

I have the right to free speech, what do I need to accomplish this right.

-The internet

I also have the right to reproduce, what do I need to accomplish this right.

-A sexual partner.

I also have the right to the pursuit of happiness, lets see I need

-a car
-some spending money (I can't chase tail if I'm broke and homebound can I?)

I also probably need some AC, heating in the winter, cable TV, and a refrigerator or lets face it I don't really have suitable shelter.

So now you have to feed me, cloth me, provide me with shelter, give me health care, provide me with a mate, and provide me with a gun and internet access. Sounds pretty sweet. Do you have an address I can send the bill to?

But most importantly, I have a basic right to not be hungry. And to accomplish that I need a ham sandwich. Now stop oppressing me and get in the kitchen!

 

Well, they don't actually own the air so they cannot do this. Our ownership over property is proportionate to the labor put into it. Some goods are publicly owned like air, water, and land. No one can rightfully lay claim to our water or air. This is why tax on land property is a valid tax.

 

But actually employing the firearm effectively requires ammo and training. Plus since most ranges are outside city limits, we will require transportation.
And we can't use the internet without computers, which require electricity.
And our mates won't have sex with us unless we look good.

So now we're up to: feed me, clothe me, provide me with shelter, give me health care, provide me with a mate, provide me with a gun , provide me with internet access and bullets and training and a car and gas and a computer and free electricity and plastic surgery.

 

The long or short of it is, positive rights can be anything. Just dream something up and declare it a right.

And I'm still waiting for my ham sandwich. The man needs to stop oppressing me.

 

I have a right to a free computer and free internet in my home at all times. It is a basic necessity that no one should be denied.

Mark my words, you will see "have not" liberals making arguments like this within the next 20 or so years. If that long.

 

How is any right granted by a divine being or "nature"?

Your rights are entirely dependent on having an authority to protect them.

 

In the next 20 years? There has already been a great deal of debate over this after the role internet access played in the arab spring.

 

Absolutely not, my rights exist independent of having an authority to protect them. My rights may be violated, but they cannot be taken away. Liberty is the natural state of man, man is not born shackled and chained.

Rights are an extension of your will and ability. Your rights are granted by a divine being or "nature" in so far as your free will has been granted by a divine being or "nature". Believe what you will about it's origin, but you do have sentience and will.

You cannot pass a law that takes away free will, nor can any law grant me additional rights. Rights are inherent to your being. You have the right to speech because you can and desire to, as long as you are not violating the rights of others. No law grants you this right, nor can any law take it away.

 

I understand the argument presented by Locke, but it's one of those things that works better on paper than in reality.

See how much good your natural rights do you if you live in a country without a stable government. How many natural rights do Somalis have?

I figure anyone that can appreciate the right to bear arms should understand this principle. If the state takes away your guns and decides to use their own against you, how many rights do you have left? -- however many they want to let you have....

 

You still have the rights, they are just being violated. The only way to take away someone's rights would be to do something that violates their person hood like unnecessary brain surgery.

Yes, tyranny violates human rights. That's why we had a revolution.

And the idea of rights has done a lot of good, as it provides a philosophical basis for moral government. The problem is when the word right is abused by idiots who think they have a right to someone else's stuff. That was the point of this thread, to explore the idea of positive rights.

Like my right to a ham sandwich.