Privileges versus Rights

There was a very interesting and thought-provoking article published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal by Lawrence Lindsey. As the former director of the National Economic Council, Lindsey's an experienced and credentialed economist, and he uses many numbers and economic debates to make his points, but at the heart of this article Lindsey tackles a question of political philosophy. Specifically, he discusses the difference between privileges and rights, and the trouble our government seems to be having distinguishing between the two.

Note: I don't agree with everything said in the article. Lindsey seems to get hung up on a few GOP talking points (the percentage of Americans that don't pay income taxes, rebuttal= even though they pay a greater percentage of their income in other taxes; the fact that the rich pay more in income taxes than ever before, rebuttal= even though in truth the rich receive far less of their wealth from income and more from capital gains and other forms of interest and speculation which are taxed far less than ever before). I'm going to concentrate on the question of privileges versus rights, here.

Lindsey begins with Geithner's implication that being an American and living in this country as a free citizen is not a right but rather a privilege. Such thinking is incredibly scary to those who defend freedom and the basic civil rights of life, liberty, and property. (Jefferson deliberately misquoted Locke so as not to inflame the already touchy subject of slave-holding in the Declaration of Independence; it would go on to be debated and included in the Constitution.) To Geithner, Lindsey argues, being an American, owning property, and earning an income are all privileges bestowed upon us by a benevolent government. We must pay for that privilege, and the rich should of course pay more.

Being an American and having the ability to earn a living in a free society, where we are protected by the rule of Law is a right, not a privilege. These rights, as understood by our Founding Fathers and defended with the blood and lives of men and women over the past two and a half centuries, are not gifts from government. We retain them as living human beings and citizens of this nation. We are "endowed by our Creator" with these "inalienable" rights, and we give to government certain limited and just powers to secure our liberty, establish justice, and insure domestic tranquility.

When government exceeds those powers and begins to think of itself as an all-powerful entity that bestows upon us "privileges" of freedom and liberty, of keeping what we earn, of live our lives the way we choose instead of the way we are told, then government has lost its legitimacy.

UPDATE: So, after I wrote this but before I posted it, I came across the fact that Geithner's quote may have been taken out of context. That takes little away from the points I've made above, though. Even if Geithner's words were not exact, the meaning and belief that being an American is a privilege rather than a right is still present in our present government's actions.