What I believe

In the interest of full disclosure you should know that I am a conservative. No, I'm not demonstrating in front of abortion clinics and I don't think that gay marriage is the end of the institution as we know it. I don't agree with the craziness that many in the Right wing of politics have come up with but in general I agree with the conservative line of thought more often than not.
I just came across this on a blog not too long ago and it seriously disturbed me. If you want to read the full description of this you can go ahead and read the other blog but here's the bit that really bugged me.
Certain folks in congress are starting to chat about a second bill of rights to include most of the following.

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

Now, many of these things are things that most people want for themselves so it's not a hard sell to consider them as rights. However when you consider it your right to have a job or your right to own a home what incentive to you have to work for those particular bits of life. My husband and I have worked really hard and sacrificed many things to achieve the kind of life that we want. We don't consider a nice house a right, we consider it something to be achieved and want to pass on that work ethic to our children. Life will not be handed to you by your government, you have to do the work, no one will do it for you. So, if the folks in congress can come up with a "manifesto" of sorts I figure I am entitled to do the same, here is mine.

I believe that America is the land of equal opportunity, not of equal results. What I do with that opportunity is my business.

I believe that I have the right to an education but again, what I do with that education is my business.

I believe that I have the right to pay for as much housing as I can work for regardless of my age, race, gender or other qualities.

I believe that it is my right to pay for what health care I feel I need and not to pay for what I feel I don't need. For this reason, I don't believe that government has any business getting involved in health care issues other than outlawing things that are harmful to vast majorities of the population.

I'm very sorry to get all kinds of political on this space but a week away from an election and things like "redistribution of wealth" are being brought up but not in a bad way and this scares the hell out of me. Do we really want to live in a society where all you have to do is show up and the government will just take care of you? Do we know what the costs of that sort of thing are and are we really willing to pay them? It's not so long ago that we saw the failure of societies like this, do we really think that we can do it better? And do we really want to try?