Where do Rights come from? God is the simple and correct answer, however for the non-believer and even the believer, let’s go deeper. Everyone has a solemn unspoken and unwritten agreement that, I do not harm you, and you do not harm me. So everyone has a right not to be harmed and comes from this agreement. |
Laws emerge from trial and error, and society comes to have an understanding of a just punishment for harm (crime). The government codifies some of these with legislation, and others are just enforced by the people themselves. People enforcing includes ‘shunning’ or other social exclusion techniques that can be very effective in bringing people in line with societal norms. |
Rights, here are described as something that is just protected, meaning government does not infringe (do harm) and also is involved in punishing perpetrators that harm others as defined in legislation. Unfortunately, our language also uses the same word ‘rights’ as ‘owed to people,’ as in someone or the government has an obligation to provide goods or services to people as opposed to just protecting them from harm. |
If one’s rights stop when they start infringing on others rights, then the word ‘rights’ should not describe government providing goods. If someone has to work and do labor to ensure you have something, their right to their own labor and property are infringed. This type of ‘rights’ should be labeled as ‘entitlements’ or ‘government obligations.’ |