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If Law itself can't prevent you to exercise your rights, it usually also means it should prevent other people from preventing you to exercise your rights. Thus

If Law itself can't prevent you to exercise your rights, it usually also means it should prevent other people from preventing you to exercise your rights. Thus murder (someone preventing you from exercising your right to live) is a crime and so is slavery (someone preventing you to exercise your freedom). Your third example is interesting because indeed, I personally believe that education should be a service like any other, one that society is not supposed to provide, at least not by law. On the other hand, law should not prevent your from getting one, nor should it allow anyone to prevent someone from having one. Hopefully you can see the difference. It's like say owning a car. You have the right to own one. If someone steals it, it's a crime and society must punish it. But society does not have to provide you one if you don't have any.

dsnuh 9y ago
>If Law itself can't prevent you to exercise your rights, it usually also means it should prevent other people from preventing you to exercise your rights. Thus murder (someone preventing you from exercising your right to live) is a crime and so is slavery (someone preventing you to exercise your freedom). You are part of a lynch mob in the 30's. Your crime of murder is swept under the rug. You live in Alabama in 1836. A man frees your slave, and you had to shoot him as he runs away. You are now out one slave (no murder, right?) and the man who freed him is in prison. Laws change. Rights are inalienable.
- grondilu 9y ago
  Well, I may have oversimplified when I wrote that rights were what you can't be prosecuted for. I'm no constitutionalist. But you can't just shrug on the idea that there is a difference between rights and entitlements. I suppose you can though, since it fits your political view. Still a quick search for "rights vs entitlements" returns ample documentation, including quotes from Law professors, like this one: "America was founded on the idea that human beings are born with natural rights, such as the rights to life, liberty and property. A person who holds this view of rights makes no demands on others except that they respect those rights. Today, however, many Americans talk about rights to a college education, state of the art medical care and even birth control pills. These are rights understood as entitlements and a person who holds this view of rights, far from making no demands on other people, is making claims on other people’s money and resources. This understanding of rights not only sets citizens against each other, but it undermines the whole idea of natural rights." http://blog.hillsdale.edu/online-courses/natural-rights-vs.-entitlement http://blog.hillsdale.edu/online-courses/natural-rights-vs.-... I like especially the "it undermines the whole idea of natural rights". Clearly people like me are the result of this undermining.

dsnuh 9y ago

>If Law itself can't prevent you to exercise your rights, it usually also means it should prevent other people from preventing you to exercise your rights. Thus murder (someone preventing you from exercising your right to live) is a crime and so is slavery (someone preventing you to exercise your freedom). You are part of a lynch mob in the 30's. Your crime of murder is swept under the rug. You live in Alabama in 1836. A man frees your slave, and you had to shoot him as he runs away. You are now out one slave (no murder, right?) and the man who freed him is in prison. Laws change. Rights are inalienable.

grondilu 9y ago
Well, I may have oversimplified when I wrote that rights were what you can't be prosecuted for. I'm no constitutionalist. But you can't just shrug on the idea that there is a difference between rights and entitlements. I suppose you can though, since it fits your political view. Still a quick search for "rights vs entitlements" returns ample documentation, including quotes from Law professors, like this one: "America was founded on the idea that human beings are born with natural rights, such as the rights to life, liberty and property. A person who holds this view of rights makes no demands on others except that they respect those rights. Today, however, many Americans talk about rights to a college education, state of the art medical care and even birth control pills. These are rights understood as entitlements and a person who holds this view of rights, far from making no demands on other people, is making claims on other people’s money and resources. This understanding of rights not only sets citizens against each other, but it undermines the whole idea of natural rights." http://blog.hillsdale.edu/online-courses/natural-rights-vs.-entitlement http://blog.hillsdale.edu/online-courses/natural-rights-vs.-... I like especially the "it undermines the whole idea of natural rights". Clearly people like me are the result of this undermining.