4.03.2007

"Rights"?

I came across the following sentence in a reading assignment for a class:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ... asserts that basic human rights to goods such as health and education pre-exist society just as negative liberty [i.e., freedom from governmental restrictions] does.

What do you think? Do we all have a right to health care and education? For that matter (and I hate to say this, since at this point I fall somewhere between conservative and libertarian on the political spectrum), do we even have a right to freedom from governmental restrictions?

I'm pretty sure I can count on Monica for a spirited response here, but if anyone wants to argue an opposing view so I can think about it from both perspectives, that'd be great. Thanks in advance to all my brilliant friends who are going to help me think through this! :)

UPDATE (4/5): Andrew over at Points of View has posted a reply to this topic.

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