Nope. Some rights require active resources to infringe upon. If I'm worshipping Satan it takes 0 active effort to protect me from government (ignoring things li

Nope. Some rights require active resources to infringe upon. If I'm worshipping Satan it takes 0 active effort to protect me from government (ignoring things like protecting me from neighbours, talking government only). It takes active effort for the government to infringe in this case. It's actually quite tiresome, requiring people to round up the satanists, and root them out. Oppression can be pretty expensive. Then you have things like safety, security, and prosperity. I share the view that these things aren't rights. I still view things like free speech and exercise of religion as "rights", and not things like food. That doesn't make them unimportant or mean the government shouldn't try to stop people from dying. Why does something have to be a right for the government to get involved. Why water down the concept of rights, by making them about access to resources? Using government isn't a two step process, where first something must be classified as a right, then the government can act. The role of government in these cases is very different from the first example. There they simply needed to not use resources for oppression (it's not always THAT simple, but some things really do require active effort). Now they need to ensure everyone is getting adequate resources. It's fundamentally a different concept. > You only get to exercise the right to free speech if everyone else knows there are consequences for disrupting it. (Fines, imprisonment, etc)... you only have that freedom so long as someone more powerful than you doesn't feel like taking it from you. You're describing the government protecting you from a third party, which is not usually how first amendment laws are used in the USA (USA is just an example here). So no, active resources aren't necessarily needed to protect free speech infringement from government. Not in the same way as with resource allocation. Yeah, courts exist, but the health of a court system is not necessarily related to resources allocated. You could have a really well funded court that rubber stamps everything. I actually think there's an interesting conversation here, regarding trade-offs between freedom/rights and prosperity/health. You could live in a totally free society with no food and health care, but what would be the point? Or you could live in an oppressive state, devoid of human dignity, but be perfectly healthy and safe. Maybe rights and freedom are a bit overrated.