Need vs. Rights

This was originally posted on PoodleRose on August 6, 2013. Comments have not been migrated.

An editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times decries a proposal to cut food stamps, stating,

It’s easy to attack the idea of people living off food stamps when they could get a job instead. But it’s not that simple.

It is true that it isn’t always simple to get a job. So? The values that life requires are not simply laying around waiting for us to pick them up. Those values must be produced. Morally, each adult has a responsibility to produce the values that his life requires. Politically, each individual should be free to take the actions he thinks will best accomplish this goal. The Sun-Times, however, believes differently.

Last month, the Associated Press reported that four out of five U.S. adults will struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least part of their lives. The food stamp program is an important safety net for people who fall into those categories. If Congress wants to fight fraud, that’s sensible, but food stamps should be protected for the people who need them.

This argument is founded on the premise that need supersedes rights, that the need of one individual gives him a claim to the efforts and property of others.

If an individual robs his neighbor because he is unemployed, we recognize his action as theft. The principle does not change merely because government acts as the middleman and takes the neighbor’s money. Nor does the principle change if the majority sanctions through democratically elected legislators. Theft is theft.