Saturday, March 31, 2007
Is prosperity a right?
Every American has the right to be prosperous. That's Obama's recent assertion and I agree. It's unclear whether he thinks government should provide that prosperity but assuming he means that it should provide the opportunity for everyone, I'm with him. Of course, who wouldn't be? Remember that old "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" thing? There was a good book about this a few years ago, Carl Cannon's The Pursuit of Happiness in a Time of War, which asserted a similar point. It seems to me it's like the parental encouragement about being able to do or be anything you want - it's true but it doesn't mean that we should expect prosperity to be handed to us. Each of us is responsible for pursuing happiness and prosperity. Language allows us to fashion how we think about and pursue them both.

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Permalink | | posted by jau at 10:09 AM


2 more:
Blogger rp — at 1:47 PM, March 31, 2007:
De Toqueville's Democracy in America which addresses beautifully the issue of equality of opportunity may be the book you should be checking out, assuming you haven't read it in a while. A fabulous read and many of his observations are still valid today.
 

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Blogger Barb the Evil Genius — at 6:37 PM, March 31, 2007:
I think just saying prosperity is a right means everyone *will* be prosperous, or they can demand it from whoever as their *right*. I think we have, as you say, the *opportunity* to be prosperous. If we are not prosperous, though, we don't have the right to *demand* that someone give it to us.

I'd rather we lived in a representative republic than a democracy, myself.
 

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