Is the Right to Free Speech more important than the Right to Live?

Question

What about the right to accomodation, heating in the winter, food, education, a fair wage, access to doctors, access to clean drinking water?

Is the right to Free Speech more important than the right to basic living conditions? Or is that too much to ask?

Erin Gamer: so you're saying there's no point in encouraging equality? Wasn't that the principle on which America was founded - Justice, Equality for all?

I understand your argument. But this has been tried before. It's not ethical, practical, or even remotely workable.

Gina P: Hardly pure socialist states - we're talking about the UN. I know, that's outside the USA, you probably don't know a lot about that kind of thing.

Answer 1

Hmmm.....without the right to free speech, who would come forward to tell the system we should all have the rest of those things? Would it even occur to our politicians that we should all have our most basic needs met, one way or another, if we are unable to meet them ourselves, if we don't utilize free speech to tell them so? I doubt they would spare much thought on it. without being prompted.... They don't have those sort of problems in thier lives, they make enough to live on and then some, and can take all manner of bennies for granted, that many of us cannot. It's easy to put aside that some of us will sleep in a doorway, or eat cat food for dinner, or spend the winter wearing a coat inside the house, if we don't have those problems ourselves, easy to say "let them eat cake",and they are intent on putting through thier precious "pork" projects, even if they have to hook them on to a popular cause in order to put them through. It is because of our right to freedom of speech that we get to b--ch at them til we get them! The citizens of the Soviet Union gave up free speech, thinking that everyone would get thier share, it didn't work out that way, people stood in long lines just to get toilet paper, or bread,or at least that was the way such things were told to us in the states...Yeah, I would say the right to free speech is more important, because we can use it to get the rest of that, wherever and however it is needed.

Seattle ogre, while I agree with you about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, that certainly applies to able minded, able bodied people, but what about those who are mentally or physically disabled, or can't even get a first job because they don't even have an address,or are just plain too old to do anything of the sort? Those are the ones most likely to fall through the cracks. Even able bodied, and able minded, I have found my self too close to living under an overpass, on too many occasions, during a Reagan / Bush "recession" (yeah, right, try "depression" where I was living at the time) I managed to get through it, but maybe *only* because I am able bodied and able minded.
Erin Gamer: that's an argument for better birth control legislation and education, not for putting our elderly out on an ice flow, what if it were your own mother we were talking about? Would it be so easy to say,"Oh well, so what if she can only afford cat food on a fixed income, and can't heat her house, oh well, that's survival of the fittest"? Or would you help provide for her, because she is your mother, and needs your help, if she can't provide for herself? Or would you say, "too bad, old lady, you gave me life, and gave me a good start, but hey, I am alot better able to get by in this world than you are, so, oh well, sayanara"?

Answer 2

The equality you are talking about is in the Declaration of Independence, which has nothing to do with the First Amendment right to free speech.
Remember when the country was founded that we had been under an oppressive tyrannical government where the rich and powerful had a completely different set of rules. The equality for all was equality under the law and the claiming of The "unalienable rights" one of which was the pursuit of happiness. That's Pursuit.
Nobody said anything about entitlement.
This is a capitalist country. If you want something, stop whining, get a job, a second job, a better education at night school and a better job... whatever it takes to EARN it.
That's my Free Speech! Use the advice as you see fit.

Answer 3

Yes it is too much to ask.
It sounds nice doesn't it? Lets take care of people, give them the basic necessities so they can survive. But, and I know this is brutal, this is extremely unwise for the survival of the human race. We SHOULD NOT support everyone, even if it were economically feasible. This planet cannot support the number of people already on it. Ever hear of survival of the fittest? Well what we are practicing is a dumbing down of the gene pool by forcing people to survive that would not have survived in the past. We're diluting ourselves as a species, and we will pay the price.

It sucks that people die, but that's true whether they've lived a long long happy life or whether they die in infancy. Its sad. But its right for the species as a whole. As we extend life more and more, we are continuing to put pressure on the planet. It cannot sustain 6 billion, 7 billion, 8 billion people. Now some say that this paves the way to space travel, and I do agree with that to an extent. But we may very well destroy ourselves first.

Answer 4

There are times in which there must be a limitation to free speech. These times are when the President declares so and begins to moderate the media and such. Normally this would have happened with Iraw by now but we are selling out to the Dems and their terrorist loving attitude which got us attacked 5 times in 8 years.

In an ideal society you are able to have a balance of all things that keeps anarchy from setting in.

Answer 5

The only right you speak of that is legitimate is the right to free speech. It is mentioned in the constitution. The other rights you speak of are not rights at all except in a pure socialists state which is where this (USA) country is headed.

Answer 6

The question is academic and hypothetical.

All "rights" are important. See Maslow's pyramid of needs, though if you want a different perspective.

In that sense, yes, basic survival needs come before rhetoric or debate.

Answer 7

The invoice of Rights ceases to be significant once you weigh it against secure practices and financial needs. If we don't appreciate the invoice of Rights and the form, they purely become products of paper.

Answer 8

Yes, free speech is more important than all of those.

Let's ignore the fact that people have voluntarily given up heat, comfort, and even their lives in defense of those freedoms.

Without the free exchange of ideas, we become a tyranny and everyone is enslaved to whoever controls the information. And for many many people, living (or dying) free is more important than being comfortable.

Answer 9

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

JUST BY YOUR BIRTH DOES NOT GIVE U A FREE RIDE,YOUR STANDARD OF LIFE ARE THE RESPONSIBLITY OF YOUR PARENTS IF THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE, TRAINING IN YOUR LIFE OF VALUES TO ACHEIVE AND NOT FEEL SORRY FOR ME BECAUSE U ARE FILLING SPACE.

DONT U THINK WE HAVE ENOUGH FREE LOADER ALREADY? HELPING SOMEONE IN A TIME OF NEED IS IMPORTANT BUT WHERE DOES IT SAY WE ADOPT U WITH OUR WALLET FOR LIFE. RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE AND TAKING CARE OF THEIR OUN FAMILIES.

Answer 10

You are setting up a false dichotomy with your question. We should never have to choose between the two.