From: Blanc Weber <blancw@microsoft.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 94 20:22:52 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: THOUGHT:  Internation
Message-ID: <9404050323.AA29905@netmail2.microsoft.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From: Jamie Lawrence:

"Well, I guess we concieve of the meaning of the phrase "'right' to a job"
somewhat differently. I see it as meaning everyone has the oppurtunity to
earn a living."

Except that you didn't say that, you said 'right to a job'.  To me that 
means that there is a job in existence to which I have a right, or that 
one should be created for me so that I may be the beneficiary of it.

"I also don't know that I think my job has
anything to do with my purpose in life- If someone can find that to be the
case, great, but otherwise it is just a way to stay alive while they are
looking for the real thing, so to speak."

Your basic purpose in life could be simply to maintain it while you or 
someone else figures out what it's for.  Maintaining a life requires 
work, which is what a job is and does.  The reference to a 'right' to a 
job is usually intended to mean that it should be provided, not just 
that the opportunity should exist.  But in fact, no one is required to 
maintain another's particular existence; especially if they impress as 
being a purposeless being with no particular reason for being assisted 
in the maintenance of their purposeless life (i.e. there being no 
reason to be even *moved* to provide them with a job).

It has been pointed out in my readings, that the Constitution makes a 
case for the *pursuit* of one's interest, to emphasize that it should 
not be hampered or prevented, but that it makes no case for the 
provision of that particular thing which one would pursue (like a house 
or a job).

"I suppose I look at the alternative- that people don't have the right to
earn a living, that doing so is a priviledge. How easy is it to get by
without a job in this country? It can be done, but it sucks."

People don't really have a right to do anything, yet they have the 
given means and a whole world & beyond, with which to do most of what 
they can imagine or anything they can manage.  It's easy, when you know how.

Blanc