Is Socialism Anti-American?

[Mr Khan]

sc94597 said:

Mr Khan said:

Right: freedom, like all things, is only good insofar as it is useful.

Yes, but it must have an ethitical basis so as to have  a meaning to use. If anything can be declared a right, then the concept of a "right" has no basis nor meaning. I can declare the right to kill somebody, if it means 1,000 people will have their "right" of housing and health-care fullfilled. Maybe, if I kill this person the government gets to tax the inheritance 100% and provide these people with housing and healthcare. Would I not be right to kill him? Does the rights of these 1000 people supercede his right to life? See how ridiculous it is to label anything to be a right? 

All rights are a human construct, the right of property included. We determine these rights through a collective discourse on what makes a just society, which is then enacted through democratic legislation. These rights can be based in a rank-order as well. I tend to reflect the Hierarchy of Needs, myself, which places the most basic needs as the most fundamental.