The Difference Between Rights and Entitlements
Posted: Friday, January 22, 2010
by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com
Some people, especially so-called progressives, do not seem to understand the difference between rights and entitlements. So, for their edification, I'm going to try to explain the distinction between these two concepts.
Rights are God-given. Other people can take them away, and may also defend them for you, but they cannot give them to you. Rights include the freedom to do as one pleases (within certain limitations) and the opportunity to excel, achieve, and succeed. They also consist of the freedom from being harmed by or unduly burdened or inconvenienced by the government and others, as well as the privilege to serve or give in any way that one chooses.
Entitlements, one the other hand, are established by governments via elected representatives or direct votes by the people. They include money, material items, services, and various forms of aid and assistance. Entitlements can be initiated or revoked at any time. Entitlements can be fully or partially earned. Examples of earned entitlements are Social Security and Medicare, for which the recipient generally contributes while he or she is working.
However, many entitlements are completely unearned. Examples of these would be food stamps, welfare, and Medicaid. Emergency aid such as that which is provided by FEMA is another example. Some would argue that these things are earned as well, via one's tax dollars. But that's a fallacious argument, as many of those who receive this kind of stuff pay little or nothing in taxes, while most of those in the highest tax brackets never receive anything from these programs.
I hope this has helped you appreciate the difference between rights and entitlements. It is important to know the difference because politicians, demagogues, and other scoundrels will often intentionally attempt to confuse the two for their own selfish purposes. Unfortunately, the ignorant (and greedy) masses will often fall prey to them and swallow their deception -- hook, line, and sinker.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Thanks for doing this article. We certainly don't want to live in a country where government plays the role of God!Jim, thanks for reading and commenting. Yes, I do think the government often tries to play God - mainly by trying to coerce people to do things that God has given them the free will to do or not to do.
Rights are given by law, by society and by government.The difference between rights and entitlements has nothing to do with where rights come from (God or society, law etc).Ben, I forgot that the Declaration of Independence says,"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by law, society, and government with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."Please forgive my forgetfulness.
so there should be no aid given for anything, because hey the victims of attack or war or natural disaster didn't "earn" it? Or did they earn the aid by dying? I see your point, but unfortunately we can't all be that obtuse, we are not in the stone ages anymore you know.Writing also seems more effective when its not so biased, but hey its your right and your entitlement to give your opinion on the web!James, you responded as if I said entitlements should not exist. All I did was differentiate them from rights. However, I do think that most entitlements, such as aid to disaster victims and the poor, should be perfomed by individuals, not by government. Jesus commanded individuals, not governments, to do good works.
Wow, well-written but I have to say the comments made it a very lively discussion! The article does a good job in separating rights from entitlements, and entitlements - for good or ill - are a part of any society as there will always be those who cannot achieve something on their own, to right an actual (or perceived) imbalance in the social structure, or to help those who need help in some way. Most of the comments in your article seem to be about the merits of entitlements, yet if I read your article correctly you are just laying out the differences. Well done.Michael, thanks for reading and commenting. Yeah, I think the comments did go down a rabbit home in disussing the merits. You are right, my original intent was just to lay out the differences.
Loved the article. The problem that we all run in to is that a whole generations has been brought along to believe that the entitlements are rights. Those same people were never taught to think for themselves. So they go along through life thinking that things like......healthcare is a right. Not thinking about where the money came form to pay for that "Right". Maybe it is ignorance. Ignorance by definition is just not knowing. The funny part is what would this people do if they had been born 200 years ago. No entitlements then.Matthew, thanks for reading and commenting. I've often wondered about the same thing.
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