When is a "right" not a right?

It has to be one of the most overused words in our society: rights. I have a right to do this. You're violating my rights. In addition to the rights with which we are familiar, such as free speech, bearing arms, and a search warrant requirement, people out there demand other things which they consider a right. Two of the biggest are education and health care. How many times have you heard the mantra that people have the right to an education, that people have a right to health care?

People in this country demand many things which they believe to be their right, but of the rights they demand, how does one determine what really is a right, and what is not?

It's a very simple formula, really. Just ask yourself one simple question: In order to exercise a "right", does it require that someone else be required by the government to pay for you to do it? Case in point: free speech. If you stand on a street corner and begin speaking about a topic of the day, does anyone have to provide you with anything out of their own pocket for you to speak? Nope, you just speak. How about bearing arms? Does someone have to provide you with a gun? Nope, you buy it and maintain it yourself.

Now how about health care? If you exercise your so-called right to free health care, does it cost anyone anything? How about the doctor who must treat you? Does he get reimbursed? How about the lab technician who had to run the test on your blood? Does he get reimbursed? By whom? How much? The simple fact is that you cannot exercise your right to health care without someone providing it for you. If you are not paying for it, the government is, and where pray tell did the government get that money to pay for your health care? That would be from us, the American taxpayers.

It's the same thing with education. If your parents didn't pay for your entire education out of their own pocket, then you most likely attended public (government) schools. The money to run these institutions comes from the same place that pays for government-subsidized health care, and that would be the American taxpayer. How can you have a right to a "free" education when someone else has to pay from their sweat and blood in order for you to receive that education?
As a teacher, I often hear the rote quote from our laws: "Each child has the right to a free and appropriate education." The right to a "free" education? Who's paying for this "free" education?

Sorry to burst the bubble of some, but education is not - and should not be - a right. The same goes for health care, and any other service or goody out there to which people claim as a right, even though someone else is required by the deadly force of government to foot the bill. That is not the exercising of rights, that is government-sanctioned theft.

Good Day to You, Sir