A Right to Love?

A pet peeve of mine is the misuse of the word "right," as in, "I have a right to affordable housing," or, "I have a right to a living wage." The word is used so often by politicians, workers and whiners alike that it has almost lost all meaning. I'm not bold enough to give an actual definition of the word, but I will say that it is used far too freely, usually in the context of overblown self-entitlement.

I realize that I'm guaranteed to take a lot of criticism for this statement, but it is essentially the core of my ethics system: No one has a right to a job, or a free education, or free health-care (not even children). Everyone has a right to pursue these things. Everyone has a right not to be denied the pursuit of these things. They are not, however, inherent. They come at the cost of other people. The government takes from Person A, and gives to Person B.

In the same sense, people do not have a right to love. Few would argue that love is any less critical to overall well being than education or health-care, yet no one argues for government enforced subsidization of love, and with good reason. Subsidized love would essentially require an abstract form of rape: forcing those with many friends to give up friends to the loveless undesirables. Even with the aid of Cupid or Love Potion #9, it would be impossible to enforce without clearly breaching inherent rights of all those with the social skills necessary to find love. Services such as education and health-care can be practically redistributed among people. Just because it is practical, however, does not make it ethical. Instead of stealing our friends the government takes our money. For those of you who have a cynical view of money and therefore think my analogy is invalid, I would recommend reading this excerpt from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. For every dollar the government takes away from an individual, they are taking away some of his/her inherent freedom. With a few exceptions (lighthouses are the only one I can come up with off of the top of my head) taxation is only excusable in the defense of citizen's true rights.

While the analogy between love and existing government programs is not perfect, I think it provides for a fresh perspective on what some taxation really is. I take my rights very seriously, and so should you.