In John Hospers essay on Libertarianism, he claims that individuals own their own lives, and they therefore have the right to act as they choose unless their actions interfere with the liberty of others to act as they choose. I agree with Hospers in this aspect of his essay. He gives many compelling arguments that point in this direction and show why individuals should be free to live their own lives and act as they so choose.
I must admit that when I first read this essay, Hospers idea on individuals was somewhat foreign to me, and I seemed to automatically reject the idea. As I read more and more of the essay, it all started to make sense in my head. There is a paragraph in which Hospers says things such as “Do you want to occupy, rent-free, the mansion that another man has worked for twenty years to buy?” or “Do you want to have free medical care at the expense of other people, whether they wish to provide it or not?” My immediate answer to these questions was of course, but as Hospers’ essay went on I saw the point in which he was trying to make. In order to live in that mansion, rent-free, or have the opportunity for free medical care, we would dispose of someone else’s life, and we as individual human being are not eligible to decide another’s life for them. The more that Hospers reiterated this message throughout the reading, the more and more that I agreed with it. Who am I to claim the hard work, or fruitful products of another individual? Hospers gives a great example of this when he describes two men, title man A and man B. Man A works extremely hard to be promoted to a well paid professional, while man B spends his money wastefully and then has none left. When man B gets sick, he demands that the government pay his bills because he has no money. This means that man A must pay man B’s bills in taxes. Why should the hardworking people of America be punished for the laziness of others? This idea comes full circle in that we cannot tell other individuals how to run their lives, and that includes telling them how they should spend their money. To me, this also means that we should not be held responsible if they choose to spend it inefficiently. I know that I do not want to be paying for the laziness of my fellow Americans.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with this post when it said that we cannot take advantage on others' hard work. If this happens, we indirectly interrupt others' rights, which are their rights on their own effort and hard work to earn a high income as a professional. Many people claim that they deserve to have free-clothing, free medical care and so on. They thought that, they have the right on the productive capacity; time and effort by other as stated in constitution law which call for moral cannibalism. As for me, I totally disagree with that, as long as we are human and have the ability to do work; we cannot depend on others to lead our lives. We should respect others' rights by not taking their wealth just to ensure that we live in better lives. Is it fair for them? Do we need to depend on the other for the rest of our lives? There is nothing free in this world. If we expect something for free, we indirectly force others to work for us for no reason.
Post a Comment