Rights Vs. Privileges
I came across this article today about welfare participants in San Diego losing their 4th amendment rights by being subjected to house searches and the such. The wording of that is wrong as rights can't be given to you by a government or (by a piece of paper), but thats for another post. I am assuming the government was doing these searches to verify the person qualified for welfare. It got me thinking that they really didn't have their right to privacy in that sense and the article was wrong to say that their rights were violated. They agreed to be receive welfare, and by doing so agreed to the search.. The article clearly states they could of avoided the searches if they chose not receive welfare. No one has a right to welfare because It is paid for through someone else's labor (property). Welfare is a privilege the state has granted the people that choose to accept it.Occasionally I get on the topic of rights with my friend and he always asks me, "What are rights?" in a tone that rights are subjective and I can claim I have a right to shoot anyone. This also isn’t true because you are depriving the person of their right to life. Freedom should be to do anything you want as long as you aren’t violating the rights of your fellow man. Rights are derived from private property ownership and maybe I should explain it to him like that. If he owns his body then he can eat whatever he wants, as long as he owns what he is eating or was given the privilege to eat it from someone. For more information I sugguest you look at Michael Badnarik’s Constitution class on Archive.org.
