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Summary
We are being told by a growing crowd that health care and housing are human rights. “Human rights” being another way of saying “should be provided by taxpayers.” Given that in most cases people can live longer without healthcare and housing than food, the next thing we hear will be that food is a human right. And not long after that, clothing. And isn’t some sort of entertainment necessary for good mental health? When the necessities of life are all seen as human rights, who will work–and why?
For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what that means for all of us and our futures as individuals and as a Republic.
Transcript
We are being told by a growing crowd that health care and housing are human rights. “Human rights” being another way of saying “should be provided by taxpayers.” Given that in most cases people can live longer without healthcare and housing than without food, the next thing we hear will be that food is a human right. And not long after that, clothing. And isn’t some sort of entertainment necessary for good mental health? When the necessities of life are all seen as human rights, who will work–and why?
For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what this means for all of us and our futures as individuals and as a Republic.
Today’s Key Point: Housing, healthcare, food, shelter and clothing, among other things, are not human rights to be guaranteed to everyone. Our communities, our nation, should–must–provide reasonable access to all the necessities of life to everyone. At its core, reasonable access means that anyone who works hard over time should have access to all of these products and services for themselves and for all of those for whom they are responsible. If someone can’t do for themselves, then the necessities should be provided. If someone won’t do for themselves, they properly and by their own choice are on their own.
We make huge progress by merely bringing up the can’t vs won’t choice. The many and growing taxpayer-funded programs all ignore this question, and focus only on perceived need. All regardless of whether that need was generated by an honest inability, after working hard over time, to provide for themselves, or if the need was generated from something less than that level of effort. Or from something that did not look like at all like an honest, hard-fought desire to make it on their own.
Life is hard, and it is correctly meant to be that way. Don’t we all learn far more from the hard times that we work through, than the easy times? Of course we do. And I am exactly the same way. The good news is that while life is hard, once we understand that, the truth of the statement that life is hard, life gets a lot easier. Once the expectation has been set and understood, it’s not so bad. In fact it’s pretty good.
Pause for a definition. By “hard”, I do not mean going to work, picking the kids up from school and doing the dishes. That may be boring and repetitive, and, perhaps, not what you’d like to do with each and every day, but it is not hard. Hard is working while putting yourself through undergraduate and graduate school. Signing for student loans is not hard. Hard is going to night school while working in a dead end job. Seeking taxpayer support because your job is being threatened by technology is not hard. You get the idea.
Does this sound hard-hearted to you? It doesn’t to me. At all. It does not even sound like “tough love” to me. It is a necessary observation about how the world, with us in it, is correctly designed to allow us, you and me, to take advantage of the hard parts in our lives by learning from those experiences. And by learning to be tough enough to keep on keeping on. In exactly the same way that your body repairs or replaces damaged muscle fibers after a workout, making you stronger. No workout, no muscle growth. No hard experiences in life, no growth.
Key Point No. 2 (Do I get two today?): If we as individuals and a society protect others from “hard”, we are doing them a great disservice. Most conversation about providing welfare focuses on the burden placed on the taxpayers. As true as that is, it’s not my point here. The great disservice is to those from whom the opportunity to learn from hardship, to learn to prosper from gritting it out, has been stolen. Yes, stolen. Stolen by the cruel fiction that life should not be hard, and if it is hard, it means that it is unfair. Q.E.D. And “unfair” is presented in many ways, including victimhood, identity politics and the like.
Let’s test Revolution 2.0’s two main tenets on today’s principles:
All of this ties to the core, driving principles at Revolution 2.0, which are:
If we apply those two core principles simultaneously, never only one or the other, we will always be on the right path. Depending upon what we face, one principle or the other may appropriately be given more emphasis, but they are always acted upon together.
The Founders, Revolution 1.0, were declared traitors by the British Crown, and their lives were forfeit if caught. We risk very little by stepping up and participating in Revolution 2.0™. . In fact, we risk our futures if we don’t. I am inviting you, recruiting you, to join Revolution 2.0™ today. Join with me in using what we know how to do–what we know we must do–to everyone’s advantage. Let’s practice thinking well of others as we seek common goals, research the facts that apply to those goals, and use non agenda-based reasoning to achieve those goals together. Practice personal responsibility and be your brother’s keeper.
Let’s continue to build on the revolutionary vision that we inherited. Read the blog, listen to the podcast, subscribe, recruit, act. Here’s what I mean my “acting.”
Revolution 1.0 in 1776 was built by people talking to other people, agreeing and disagreeing, but always finding ways to stay united and going forward. Revolution 2.0 will be built the same way.
Join me. Join the others. Let’s grow this together.
And visit the store. Fun stuff, including hats, mugs and t-shirts. Recommend other items that you’d like to see.
Links and References
Contact
As we get ready to wrap up, please do respond in the blog with comments or questions about this podcast or anything that comes to mind, or connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And you can subscribe to the podcast on your favorite device through Apple Podcasts, Google, or Stitcher.
Now it is time for our usual parting thought. It is not enough to be informed. It is not enough to be a well informed voter. We need to act. And if we, you and I, don’t do something, then the others who are doing something, will continue to run the show
Remember: Knowledge by itself is like running a winning race, then stopping just before the finish line.
Will Luden, writing to you from my home office at 7,200’ in Colorado Springs.
