<The right to food, housing, legal representation, medical treatment and so on is an abomination and means theft.>
That's an idea which was dominant in the 19th Century, faded in the 20th, and is making a come-back. In the U.S., at the beginning of the 20th Century, the Progressive Republicans, under the first Rooseveldt, decided to modify the Robber Baron Darwinian capitalism of the 19th Century. The Socialist Party was growing rapidly, because the unrestrained Rights of Property was collecting all wealth, all power, and all freedom, into the hands of a tiny elite. So Property was restrained, tamed, by those enlightened Republicans. Limits were set on Property's freedom. And Capitalism, heavily reformed, went on to win the ideological war against Communism.
A formal right to express yourself is meaningless, unless you have the necessities of life, and a basic education, and health care. Starving, sick, illiterate, or penniless people cannot use (or defend) any rights to freedom of expression. So, any society that wants to make freedom real for all its people, has to (one way or another) make sure those needs are met, for everyone. Otherwise, the freedoms are merely hypothetical.
Give unrestrained freedom to Property, and most humans end up with little freedom. |
