Paul’s philosophical excursus is buried in the midst of the too-friendly-for-parody article (it ends with a patient waxing poetic about how Paul “ loves people“), but the words are unmistakably Randian. “As humans, yeah, we do have an obligation to give people water, to give people food, to give people health care,” Paul allowed, “but it’s not a right because once you conscript people and say, ‘Oh, it’s a right,’ then really you’re in charge, it’s servitude, you’re in charge of me and I’m supposed to do whatever you tell me to do.”
The comments are an echo of his 2011 claim that accepting a human right to health care “ means you believe in slavery,”
That thinking is very consistent with being a Libertarian because if those things are a "right" then the government is on the hook to provide them, but also can make you jump thru all kinds of hoops to get them--in essense control your freedom.
To my knowledge those things are not yet a "right", but the direction of the country is that way as more and more people receive these benefits. This goes to the heart of a lot of the political dialogue in the country IMHO. |
