mrstickball said:
....We need to restrict rights to ensure that we have other rights? Really? In my view and experience, re-distribution of government to ensure education, health care, food, shelter, and so on has always been a losing proposition when compared to charities that service these needs. Government has a tendency to create gross inefficencies with redistribution, as they always cater to the lowest common denominator for services, whereas private institutions can tailor programs and packages to ensure said needs are met in a far more efficient manner. |
"Give rights, get rights" is the foundation of all politics, and is a simple bartering mechanism as is foundational to economics. To better ourselves economically, we become dependent on others who are interdependent on us, through specialization and all, and that is how rights work too, and the prime outlet of the welfare state is that we all give a little so that some or all can benefit more
The only people who don't think that way are very hard-right anarchists (a rare breed indeed, as anarchists usually envision some sort of stage 3 Communism)
As for progressivism, yes, it hinges on the idea that not all political beliefs are created equal (as is clearly the case in the end, the question just being exactly what is the right way), that some ideas are right and that others are counterproductive or just plain wrong. It assumes a certain level of arrogance to be sure, but don't all belief systems really?
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.