Not everything that is useful is a right!

We as a society have somehow perverted the idea of a right as something material. It is often said that education is a right, that healthcare is a right, healthy meals are a right. The problem is that all these things are material; education, healthcare, food all take resources to create. Something that is a right should not - and cannot - take resources to give out. A right, by definition, is something that every person should be able to have at any and every point in his or her life. Unlimited access for each and every person is what defines a right, and that prevents anything material from being a right. This world - or even the universe at large - only has finite resources, and everyone cannot possibly have unlimited access to something material.

Which is why stories like this one make me frustrated. Apparently people think that the Internet is a fundamental human right, like the right to free speech and press. I am not going to say that this flies in the face of true rights, but it comes pretty damn close. It costs someone something to provide Internet access to your home or local coffee shop, and if you aren't somehow paying for it, then you are screwing the guy providing your much-beloved Internet! This is how the world works; someone provides something you need (Internet, healthcare, cheesy pizza), and in return you give him or her something they need (cash money).

Rights like those in the American Bill of Rights are true rights, and notice, not a single one of them demands that I or anyone else give society something material for free. They allow people to pursue material goods, but they do not force one societal group to freely give something to the rest of the people at a lose. That is exactly what people are trying to do when they say that some material object is a right; it is no different to say that an Ikea dresser and dual monitors (things I have worked and paid for) is a fundamental human right. People need to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that there are many useful, indispensable things in this world, but we need to pay for them!

Now, crack open a good beer and have fun!