[Avodah] Rights in halakhah

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 01:00:13PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> :> Locke wrote about the (positive) rights to Life, Liberty and Property, it
> :> is his philosophy which shapted the US, and I'm saying that that's a major
> :> piece to the prevelance of the culture of entitlement in these parts.
> 
> : On the contrary, those are negative rights.  I can't imagine how you
> : understand them to be positive rights.
> 
> "Right to life" not "Right not to get killed".

What else does the right to life mean?  Someone has to "give" you life?
Who?  Hashem?!  How about the rights to liberty and property?  Do you
imagine it means someone has to give you stuff?!  Don't be silly.  It
means nobody can take the stuff you legitimately have, just as the right
to life means *nothing* but that nobody can kill you, and the right to
liberty means *nothing* but that nobody can lock you up.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher