THE BILL OF NO RIGHTS
RIGHTS YOU DO NOT HAVE
- Article I: You do NOT have an automatic right to any form of wealth. You must earn
your wealth yourself. Work is necessary to create wealth, because this
stupid planet can't support its population without work. Government can not guarantee any
luxuries.
- Article II: You do NOT have the right to be free from being offended. You have the
right to leave, change the station, or express your own opinion. But if the offense is
something a religion prohibits its members from encountering, it should be removed from
public view by the owner as a matter of goodwill.
- Article III: You do NOT have the right to be free from harm. You do have the right
either to be careful or to stupidly injure yourself. You do not have the right to be
compensated for your stupidity, because nothing is perfectly safe. But if others harm
you, you do have the right to be compensated for real damages.
- Article IV: You do not have the right to free food and lodging. People have the
right to help you if they choose to, but you do not have the right to live off of the
labors of others. Food and lodging come into being only because people work.
- Article V: You do NOT have the right to physically harm other people, or to damage
or destroy their property. If you do these things, expect to be punished for them, and to
have to pay for what you damage.
- Article VI: You do not have the right to the property of others. If you rob, cheat,
or coerce away the belongings or labors of others, expect to be punished.
- Article VII: You do NOT have the right to a job. You must earn a
job by the skills and drive you possess. You have the right to look for a job, and you
have the right to improve yourself so you can get a job. And if nobody is hiring in your
chosen profession, you have the right to look for a new profession.
- Article VIII: You do not have the right to happiness. You have the right to pursue
it, but finding it is up to you.
- Article IX: You do NOT have the right to a "living wage". Where do you think the
money to pay this wage comes from? Is there a "Living Wage Fairy"? NO! Work is the only
thing that generates wealth. Sales revenue is the only source of revenue available to pay
wages. Government regulation and taxation destroy wealth. A "living wage" regulation will
just make the prices go up as fast as the wages do. Your work is not worth what you think
it is worth. It is worth what it produces, and it is worth a portion of what the final
product can be sold for.
Note that it is impossible for government to pay for many social
benefits and for most workers to be earning a "living wage", since it is
the same money that must be divided up between them. There is not enough
wealth generated from one man's work to pay for him to have both.
- Article X: You do NOT have the right to free health care. Again, government cannot
conjure up wealth out of thin air to pay for it. You get what you pay for.
- Article XI: You do NOT have the right to entertainment. You have no right to force
others to pay for your pleasure. You also have no right to make others provide the kind of
entertainment you like. Entertainment is a luxury, not a necessity. Some poor man would
have to work harder to pay more taxes, just so you could have some fun.
- Article XII: You do NOT have a right to have a professional sports team in your
area. They are not essential, so government has no right to spend tax revenue on it,
making people work harder so government can subsidize a team. If you want nonessentials,
you can always pay for them yourself.
- Article XIII: You do not have the right to sex. You can also pursue this, but there
is again no guarantee that you will get it. Some forms of sex are illegal because of the
harm they do to others, or because they spread disease. And you definitely have no right
to take sex, since it always requires the consent of another adult.
- Article XIV: You do NOT have the right to the arts, sports, culture, or recreation.
None of these are essentials. Government has no right to tax others to provide or
subsidize them for your enjoyment. You can pay for them yourself, or do without them.
- Article XV: You do NOT have the right to control what your neighbor does or
has. As long as there is no physical threat to you or your property, it is none of your
business.
- Article XVI: You do NOT have the right to a nice view. Unless you OWN the property
containing the view, you have no right to stop the owner from changing it.
- Article XVII: You do NOT have the right to freedom from being bothered or annoyed.
You are bothering others by complaining about what is bothering you. Either erect barriers
on your own property to block the bothering influences, or learn to live with them.
Something must be a real hazard before government has the right to intervene.
- Article XVIII: You do NOT have the right to freedom from religious speech. Many
religions require their members to tell others about their beliefs. But you don't have to
listen.
- Article XIX: You do NOT have the right to freedom from noises. Unless the noise is
loud enough to damage hearing, you have no right to intervene. Again, if the noise bothers
you, you have the right to install devices on your own property to block it.
- Article XX: You do NOT have the right to control the trees or plants on property
belonging to others. Unless they constitute a hazard (and growth closer than 10 feet to a
road DOES constitute a sight-distance hazard), you have no right to control their presence,
erection, or removal.
- Article XXI: You do NOT have the right to freedom from eyesores. What you
consider to be an eyesore may be an object of beauty to the owner.
- Article XXII: You do NOT have the right to freedom from opinions that are against
your beliefs. They have a right to speak too. You don't have to listen. But if such opinions are made part of
official government policy, or are taught in public schools, then you have the right to object.
- Article XXIII: You do NOT have the right to free stuff from government. Government
has no power to create wealth, so someone must work to create all of that stuff. The money
to pay for whatever you get is taxed from the back of someone else who has to work twice
as hard to pay for your greed as well as his need. Again, it hurts the poor.
- Article XXIV: You do NOT have the right to influence a court trial in which you are
not a participant. Demonstrations, picketing, public opinion, and letter writing all have
no bearing on the process of finding out the truth about what events really occurred. You
have the right to petition the legislature, not the courts, if you want the law
changed.
- Article XXV: You do NOT have the right to do things that are illegal. It does not
matter whether or not you are caught. It matters whether or not you broke the law. If you
do not like the law the way it is, then work to have the law changed through your
legislators.
If you are punished for committing a crime, it is your own fault. You did what the law
says not to do. It is not the fault of the person who turned you in, the policeman who
arrested you, the prosecutor who took you to court, the judge, or the jury. They were all
doing their DUTIES that they were required by the law to do. You have absolutely no right
to any revenge for their actions. They could be charged with crimes themselves for FAILING
to do those duties.
- Article XXVI: You do NOT have the right to force others to obey your own political
or religious beliefs. This includes Environmentalism, Darwinism, and Political Correctness.
You also do NOT have the right to stop others from obeying their beliefs. This means that
you cannot make others do things your belief requires, make them do things their beliefs
prohibit, or keep them from doing things required by their beliefs. The only case where
you have the right to stop others from obeying their beliefs is if obeying their beliefs
deprives you of your life, limb, liberty, or property.
In other words, if you want it, you have to work for it.
The first 8 no-rights were paraphrased from the 8 written by Georgia State
Representative Mitchell Kaye. The others are mine.
Home