"The concept of a "right" pertains onto to action--specifically, to freedom of action. It makes freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men.
: Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positive [italics hers]-- a freedom to act on his own judgement, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoercedchoice [italics mine]. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative [italics hers] kind: to abstain from violating his rights."
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: Ibid. page 322
-----=I, as new owner of a watershed, have decided to divert some streams to my pool and golf course. The "peasant" farmers in the valley below object. Do I have a right to withold my water from them?
I will be happy to grant exclusive rights to the individual - so long as that individual lives as a hermit out of harms way.
In a culture that is not barbarian, economic rights are readily granted to children, the sick, and the infirm. (Freedom from want) In a more enlightened culture, these economic rights would extend to guaranteed shelter and employment at a liveable wage.
Get it through your head. We live in a class society. It is inevitable that values of liberty and freedom held by each class will collide.
