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by gruez
2020 days ago
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> Yes. Most welfare states. Is it guaranteed? ie. do you have to be disabled/retired to qualify, or is it open to everyone? >Distributing food nationally is hard (consider cold chain, warehousing, distribution, managing expiry, dietary requirements, demand), so most welfare states distribute money instead and rely on the private sector to provide the infrastructure. But then the food isn't guaranteed, is it? You're only really guaranteed money, which could be converted to food. Consider a hypothetical: let's say a country has a poll tax of $100 per person, then offsets it by giving everyone $100, is it fair to say that you have the right to vote in that country? Feel free to replace "right to vote" with other rights, such as freedom of speech, right to not self-incriminate, protection against unreasonable search and seizure. |
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You are correct but I feel perhaps missing the woods for the trees.
Every person's right tends to be someone else's obligation.
When obligations are met by state resources, there is then a responsibility to distribute fairly (because the resources come from everyone), this introduces hoops or conditions.
That doesn't mean that the right, or the obligation doesn't exist.
The need to ensure everyone gets food is absolutely part of the public understanding and discourse.
You can of course pick holes all day because yes, administering public welfare programs is hard.
Conditions where the state is obliged to do or provide something tend to be more complicated in practice than when the state is obliged NOT to do something (search and seizure, freedom of speech etc).