Human rights, what are they and who pays for them?

[cronewitch]

examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-human-rights.html
Some examples of human rights include:

The right to life
The right to liberty and freedom
The right to the pursuit of happiness
The right to live your life free of discrimination
The right to control what happens to your own body and to make medical decisions for yourself
The right to freely exercise your religion and practice your religious beliefs without fear of being prosecuted for your beliefs
The right to be free from prejudice on the basis of race, gender, national origin, color, age or sex
The right to grow old
The right to a fair trial and due process of the law
The right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment
The right to be free from torture
The right to be free from slavery
The right to freedom of speech
The right to freely associate with whomever you like and to join groups of which you'd like to be a part.
The right to freedom of thought
The right not to be prosecuted from your thoughts


Read more at examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-human-rights.html#FRgP3TYxzlssCFYj.99

I think we pretty much agree on the free rights like freedom of speech. What about other rights like I am watching a city council meeting saying housing is a human right. So are food, clothing, shelter, medical, dental, mental health care, drug treatment a human rights so should be free?
Our city has homeless people who aren't getting all these things so who should be paying for housing and things for them? What quality housing and food? I see in India a man built 12X20 apartments for slum dwellers, each has two windows and access to filtered water. Doesn't say they have kitchens or bathrooms, heat or air conditioning or smoke alarms or fire sprinklers. Seattle is giving the homeless sheds with a light bulb or allowing tent cities, is that enough or are then entitled to three bedroom apartments if they have a couple kids?

[billisonboard]

[tskeeter]

Jan 6, 2017 19:07:05 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-human-rights.html
Some examples of human rights include:

The right to life
The right to liberty and freedom
The right to the pursuit of happiness
The right to live your life free of discrimination
The right to control what happens to your own body and to make medical decisions for yourself
The right to freely exercise your religion and practice your religious beliefs without fear of being prosecuted for your beliefs
The right to be free from prejudice on the basis of race, gender, national origin, color, age or sex
The right to grow old
The right to a fair trial and due process of the law
The right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment
The right to be free from torture
The right to be free from slavery
The right to freedom of speech
The right to freely associate with whomever you like and to join groups of which you'd like to be a part.
The right to freedom of thought
The right not to be prosecuted from your thoughts


Read more at examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-human-rights.html#FRgP3TYxzlssCFYj.99

I think we pretty much agree on the free rights like freedom of speech. What about other rights like I am watching a city council meeting saying housing is a human right. So are food, clothing, shelter, medical, dental, mental health care, drug treatment a human rights so should be free?
Our city has homeless people who aren't getting all these things so who should be paying for housing and things for them? What quality housing and food? I see in India a man built 12X20 apartments for slum dwellers, each has two windows and access to filtered water. Doesn't say they have kitchens or bathrooms, heat or air conditioning or smoke alarms or fire sprinklers. Seattle is giving the homeless sheds with a light bulb or allowing tent cities, is that enough or are then entitled to three bedroom apartments if they have a couple kids?

I think some folks confuse human needs for human rights.  

I don't think people automatically have a right to have their needs met without any effort on their part.

For those who are truly unable to provide for their own basic needs, I think that "society" should provide for those needs in the most efficient manner possible.  I suspect that "most efficient manner possible" translates into facilities to institutionalize those who can't provide for themselves.

[Deleted]

I do think shelter, food, and medical care are basic human rights.  These do not have to be luxurious.  There is nothing wrong with society requiring people to work for them.  FDR had the right idea with the WPA.  I don't know how that might work today, however.

[sesfw]

The right to the pursuit of happiness


I think this is the one that covers almost everything else.

Food, covering, shelter are human needs

A meal is a need ....... a banquet is a want ........ you have the right to pursue it through earnings, not taking

Covering (clothes) is a need ....... formal wear is a want ....... you have the right to pursue it through earnings, not taking

Shelter of some kind is a need ....... a McMansion is a want ........... you have the right to pursue it through earnings, not taking

These are basic human needs ..... No one has the right to take away the needs of someone else for their own wants.

[tallguy]

Jan 6, 2017 19:07:05 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-human-rights.html
Some examples of human rights include:

The right to life
The right to liberty and freedom
The right to the pursuit of happiness
The right to live your life free of discrimination
The right to control what happens to your own body and to make medical decisions for yourself
The right to freely exercise your religion and practice your religious beliefs without fear of being prosecuted for your beliefs
The right to be free from prejudice on the basis of race, gender, national origin, color, age or sex
The right to grow old
The right to a fair trial and due process of the law
The right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment
The right to be free from torture
The right to be free from slavery
The right to freedom of speech
The right to freely associate with whomever you like and to join groups of which you'd like to be a part.
The right to freedom of thought
The right not to be prosecuted from your thoughts


Read more at examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-human-rights.html#FRgP3TYxzlssCFYj.99

I think we pretty much agree on the free rights like freedom of speech. What about other rights like I am watching a city council meeting saying housing is a human right. So are food, clothing, shelter, medical, dental, mental health care, drug treatment a human rights so should be free?
Our city has homeless people who aren't getting all these things so who should be paying for housing and things for them? What quality housing and food? I see in India a man built 12X20 apartments for slum dwellers, each has two windows and access to filtered water. Doesn't say they have kitchens or bathrooms, heat or air conditioning or smoke alarms or fire sprinklers. Seattle is giving the homeless sheds with a light bulb or allowing tent cities, is that enough or are then entitled to three bedroom apartments if they have a couple kids?

Can we just boil it down to one and say the right to self-determination?  That would encompass at least half the things on the list anyway.  And before anyone takes issue, no, you do not have the "right" to violate someone else's right in the exercise of yours.  And the bolded is nonsense.  None of those things are "rights" in any real sense.  They are needs, perhaps, but that is not the same thing.  We have evolved a society that for the most part chooses to provide those needs to most of its citizens, but there does not exist a right to them.

[NastyWoman]

Jan 6, 2017 19:39:46 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

I do think shelter, food, and medical care are basic human rights.  These do not have to be luxurious.  There is nothing wrong with society requiring people to work for them.  FDR had the right idea with the WPA.  I don't know how that might work today, however.

There is a wall to be build I believe. That would be a double whammy, get the out of work working and charge Mexico for it.

Now whether Mexico is crazy enough to pay for that charge remains to be seen...

[zibazinski]

Charging fees for money sent out of the country would help but cutting off the things given to illegals and their offspring as well as fining then jailing those that employ them would do a better job. The money charged for sending money out of the country could be used for things to benefit citizens.

[tallguy]

Jan 6, 2017 19:39:46 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

I do think shelter, food, and medical care are basic human rights.  These do not have to be luxurious.  There is nothing wrong with society requiring people to work for them.  FDR had the right idea with the WPA.  I don't know how that might work today, however.

Aren't you contradicting yourself here?  Either that or you are using a non-standard definition of "rights."  If you have to work for them, they are not rights.  Rights are fundamental to the individual and exist regardless of any such requirement.  One must occasionally work to defend one's rights, true.  That is very different. 

[Deleted]

Jan 8, 2017 18:10:49 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Jan 6, 2017 19:39:46 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

I do think shelter, food, and medical care are basic human rights.  These do not have to be luxurious.  There is nothing wrong with society requiring people to work for them.  FDR had the right idea with the WPA.  I don't know how that might work today, however.

Aren't you contradicting yourself here?  Either that or you are using a non-standard definition of "rights."  If you have to work for them, they are not rights.  Rights are fundamental to the individual and exist regardless of any such requirement.  One must occasionally work to defend one's rights, true.  That is very different. 

Probably about the contradiction.  "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," Emerson said.  I'm not calling your mind "little," by the way.  We just all tend to be inconsistent so I don't worry about it.

I do think we all have the right to shelter, food, and medical care.  I just envision that as pretty basic.  Maybe that is basic as in basic human needs.  But I do think our citizens can look to our government to ensure that these rights/needs/whatever are met.  But that doesn't mean they should be met without something being done on the side of the individual.

I'm thinking senior citizen here trying to live on a $1000 SS check.  That $1000 should be enough to buy these basics.  The government may have to subsidize that with senior housing and SNAP.  But I also believe that senior citizen should be spending most of that $1000 to meet these needs.  It's simply not enough, which is where the "right to" comes in.

I don't pretend to have the answer.  I know it's not a hand-out.  That's why I said society should require people to work to meet these needs/rights.  WPA is a great example as in the government acknowledged that people had these needs.  So they provided an opportunity for people to earn the $$$ to meet them.  I think the people had a right to expect the government to help them meet them.  I guess that's where my definition of rights came in.

I have no idea how any of this might work today.  Or even if I made any sense.  

[tallguy]

Again, though, the fact that we have a society that considers it good to provide basic needs does not in any way convert those needs into rights.  Or that one has the right to expect or demand that society provide for those needs.  We do it because we choose to.  We place that obligation upon ourselves because we consider it a societal good.  That is all.  It is not in any way a right.  One has the right to live their life as they choose (subject to their ability to provide for their choices) given that they do not infringe on the rights of others to do the same.  One has the right to try and improve their situation, given the same limitation.  One has the right to not have those rights infringed or denied.  That's pretty much it.      

[Phoenix84]

I don't think needs are rights.

[Virgil Showlion]

I'm with the consensus.

It depends on whether one defines "rights" by what people need or by what society can sustainably supply. It depends on how one weighs rights of the individual against rights of the collective. And it depends on how much force one is willing to employ (and how much one is willing to sacrifice) to enforce anything they deem to be a "right".

Fundamentally, a "right" is simply an idea. Words on paper. A line in a contract.

[wyouser]

Human "rights" are only understood by left handers, those endowed by their creator with "right" minds.....now who pays for all this, well, that was decided on November 8th....Mexico, of course!