{"id":134874,"date":"2017-10-01T23:15:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T05:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134874"},"modified":"2017-10-01T23:54:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T05:54:02","slug":"arguing-rights-two-parts-semantics-one-part-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/01\/arguing-rights-two-parts-semantics-one-part-cruelty.html","title":{"rendered":"Arguing about rights is two parts semantics, one part cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is health care a “right”? Well, US Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) clearly doesn’t think so. Like food and shelter, he considers them “privileges.”<\/p>\n

Do you consider food a right? Do you consider clothing a right? Do you consider shelter a right? What we have as rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have the right to freedom. Past that point, everything else is a limited resource that we have to use our opportunities given to us so that we can afford those things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, it’s kind of hard to have that “right” to life (let alone liberty or the pursuit of happiness) without health care, food, or housing. Not that Sen. Johnson (who, with a personal wealth of $36 million is the seventh-wealthiest person in Congress<\/a>) will ever have to worry about “affording those things.”<\/p>\n

I do feel, as a personal philosophy, a need to separate out rights that are intrinsic to an individual, qualities that cannot be taken away but must be respected. The right to personal conscience (speech, religion, etc.) is that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

I, myself, do not consider health care and food and shelter a “right” in that same fashion. But I do consider them societal obligations,<\/i> part of the social contract. If society means anything other than a thinly veiled war of all against all (as Hobbes would put it<\/a>), then it means banding together to be sure that nobody starves, nobody dies of preventable illness, nobody freezes to death in the street during the winter.<\/p>\n

Not that Sen. Johnson, again, will ever have to worry about those things for himself or his immediate loved ones. That he doesn’t worry about them for anyone else, though, speaks volumes.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nRepublican senator calls health care, food, and shelter a \u2018privilege\u2019<\/a><\/span>
\nSenator Ron Johnson was asked by a high school student whether he considered health care a right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is health care a “right”? Well, US Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) clearly doesn’t think so. Like food and shelter, he considers them “privileges.” Do you consider food a right? Do you consider clothing a right? Do you consider shelter a right? What we have as rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We … Continue reading “Arguing about rights is two parts semantics, one part cruelty”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,528,134,374,358,376],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-134874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-economic-justice","category-health-care","category-money-politics","category-poor-citizenship","category-taxing-spending","tag-gop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/unnamed.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27544,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/24\/please-sir-may-i-have-some-more.html","url_meta":{"origin":134874,"position":0},"title":"Please Sir, May I Have Some More?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Apr-12 3:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So, how is health care a \"privilege you earn\"? How do you \"earn\" that \"privilege\"? Aside from having as much money as Croesus or else working for a company that offers health insurance company -- is that \"earning\" it?)I am willing to accept his formulation (through some truly incoherent babble)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F04%2Fjesse-kelly-300x214.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130154,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/10\/gop-senator-admits-blocking-obama-scotus-nom-is-politics-not-principle.html","url_meta":{"origin":134874,"position":1},"title":"GOP Senator admits blocking Obama SCOTUS nom is politics, not principle","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Mar-16 7:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not that anyone's actually surprised, mind you, except maybe that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) would be so blunt about it.\"Generally, and this is the way it works out politically, if you\u2019re replacing \u2014 if a conservative president\u2019s replacing a conservative justice, there\u2019s a little more accommodation to it. But when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8341,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/09\/getting_more_th.html","url_meta":{"origin":134874,"position":2},"title":"Getting more than a tad embarrassing","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 9-Dec-05 8:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"For a \"land of the free\" and a place based on the idea of inalienable rights to \"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,\" it's getting to be both embarrassing...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51511,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/civil-rights-are-shouldnt-be-up-to-the-democratic-process.html","url_meta":{"origin":134874,"position":3},"title":"Civil Rights are shouldn't be up to the democratic process","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Jun-15 2:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, yeah, it's nice when civil right recognition happens organically, and people recognize the value of human beings of various types and protect their \"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\"But people can be balky. Significant portions of the populace can be reluctant to recognize rights that make them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21340,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/21\/unblogged-bits-tue-21-jun-11-2330.html","url_meta":{"origin":134874,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Tue. 21-Jun-11 2330)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Jun-11 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... 7 life lessons from the very wealthy - The Washington Post - Money buys comfort, not happiness. But happiness is at least as important, and too many people -- rich and not-so-rich -- miss\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10759,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/04\/independence_day_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":134874,"position":5},"title":"Independence Day","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Jul-07 9:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"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,...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/declaration.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134885,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134874\/revisions\/134885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}