Doubletap
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- Dec 28, 2012
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If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.
A right is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a mans freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a mans right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated actionwhich means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.)
The concept of a right pertains only to action (not services or products)specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men.
Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positiveof his freedom to act on his own judgment, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoerced choice. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative kind: to abstain from violating his rights.
The right to life is the source of all rightsand the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.
Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values.
There is no such thing as a right to a jobthere is only the right of free trade, that is: a mans right to take a job if another man chooses to hire him. There is no right to a home, only the right of free trade: the right to build a home or to buy it. There are no rights to a fair wage or a fair price if no one chooses to pay it, to hire a man or to buy his product. There are no rights of consumers to milk, shoes, movies or champagne if no producers choose to manufacture such items (there is only the right to manufacture them oneself). There are no rights of special groups, there are no rights of farmers, of workers, of businessmen, of employees, of employers, of the old, of the young, of the unborn. There are only the Rights of Manrights possessed by every individual man and by all men as individuals" ---Ayn Rand
A right is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a mans freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a mans right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated actionwhich means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.)
The concept of a right pertains only to action (not services or products)specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men.
Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positiveof his freedom to act on his own judgment, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoerced choice. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative kind: to abstain from violating his rights.
The right to life is the source of all rightsand the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.
Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values.
There is no such thing as a right to a jobthere is only the right of free trade, that is: a mans right to take a job if another man chooses to hire him. There is no right to a home, only the right of free trade: the right to build a home or to buy it. There are no rights to a fair wage or a fair price if no one chooses to pay it, to hire a man or to buy his product. There are no rights of consumers to milk, shoes, movies or champagne if no producers choose to manufacture such items (there is only the right to manufacture them oneself). There are no rights of special groups, there are no rights of farmers, of workers, of businessmen, of employees, of employers, of the old, of the young, of the unborn. There are only the Rights of Manrights possessed by every individual man and by all men as individuals" ---Ayn Rand
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