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,