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'Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainity and agitation distinquish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones ... All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.' Marx

Libertarians + positive rights « Previous | |Next »
January 11, 2011

In Libertarians, health insurance, and rights in the Economist it is stated that:

Essentially, libertarians don't believe in positive rights. They believe that no matter how rich a society may be, no member of that society has a right to demand a minimal share of basic goods from that society. People have the right not to be interfered with, but they don't have the right to actually get anything. One can think of the position in terms of a desert-island castaway analogy. Let's say two castaways wash up on a desert island, along with their trunks. One is fantastically rich, and he has several trunks full of tinned meat, a water filter, and so on. The other guy just has a carry-on bag with a toothbrush. The question is: is the rich guy morally obliged to share his water filter with the poor guy? Does the poor guy have a right to potable water, given that the filter makes adequate water available for everyone? Or would it just be a nice thing, but not a rights-based moral obligation, for the rich guy to share his water?

Rights considered positive rights, as initially proposed in 1979 by the Czech jurist Karel Vasak, may include other civil and political rights such as police protection of person and property and the right to counsel, as well as economic, social and cultural rights such as public education, health care, social security, and a minimum standard of living.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 10:12 PM | | Comments (1)
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And?