So What Exactly is a RIGHT?

## What Is a Right — and What Is Not?

A clear-thinking guide for anyone who values justice, freedom, or their own life.
We live in an age of moral confusion, where the loudest political claim is: "I have a right to..." — followed by whatever someone most urgently wants.
"I have a right to housing."
"I have a right to healthcare."
"I have a right to a job, an education, an income, a safe space, love, comfort, and convenience."
Rights have become a slogan for every desire, demand, and grievance under the sun. But when everything is called a right, the concept itself becomes meaningless — or worse, dangerous.
Because here’s the truth:

> A right is not something you’re given. It’s something you are born with.
> It cannot be created, granted, or voted into existence — only respected or violated.

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### Rights Are Moral Principles, Not Government Promises

A right is a moral recognition of your sovereignty as a thinking, acting individual. It affirms your freedom to pursue values — to live by your own mind, make your own choices, and take responsibility for your life.
You don’t need permission to think, speak, work, build, or love. Those are not gifts from the state — they are expressions of your human nature.
All a proper government can do is protect your rights — by banning force, fraud, and coercion — so that no one can stop you from living as a rational being.
That’s it. That’s the role of law in a free society.

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### Real Rights Do Not Involve Force

A right is your freedom to act, not your guarantee to receive.
If someone else must be forced to give you something — their time, their money, their labor, their services — then what you’re claiming is not a right, but a demand.
Let’s be honest:

• You do not have a “right” to healthcare unless a doctor is morally required to serve you.
• You do not have a “right” to housing unless a builder must work for you without consent.
• You do not have a “right” to income unless an employer owes you a job regardless of merit.

These are not expressions of liberty. They are denials of it.
Because for every person who claims a so-called "right" to be provided for, there is another person who must be forced to provide it.
This is not justice. It’s legalised servitude.

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### How This Connects to Capitalism

The only system that fully respects individual rights is capitalism — not the crony kind, not the subsidised or corporatist kind, but the original, moral kind: where all human interaction is voluntary, and the use of force is banned.
Capitalism doesn’t guarantee equal results.
It doesn’t promise safety, comfort, or wealth.
What it offers is freedom.
The freedom to produce.
The freedom to speak.
The freedom to keep what you earn.
The freedom to rise — or fall — by your own effort and choices.
And most importantly, it offers the freedom to not be sacrificed for the needs, wishes, or demands of others.

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### Why This Matters Now

In a culture where rights are constantly redefined to mean handouts, we must reclaim their true meaning — before we lose them entirely.
If you care about fairness, justice, and moral clarity…
If you’re tired of feeling guilty for wanting to keep what you’ve earned…
If you want a society built on personal responsibility, not coercive compassion…
Then this conversation is for you.

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### 🟫 Capitalism and Coffee – Thursday July 24

What Is a Right — and What Is Not?
📍 Private home (address provided after RSVP)
🕕 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Join us for a rich, respectful discussion on the nature of rights, freedom, and the moral foundations of a just society. We welcome honest disagreement and critical thinking — this is not a lecture, it’s a conversation.
You don’t need to be an Objectivist or a philosopher.
Just come with a mind that wants clarity — not clichés.
👉 RSVP to receive the address. Spaces are limited.
📩 Email xenia@alexarealestate.com.au
📞 Or text 0412 437 582

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Rights are not entitlements.
They are boundaries.
They say: “You may not cross this line. My life is mine.”
And that’s a line worth defending.
— Xenia Ioannou

### 📚 Reading List: What Is a Right?

#### 🔹 Core Objectivist Philosophy

1. “Man’s Rights” – Ayn Rand

• Essential reading. Rand’s clearest definition of individual rights, where they come from, and why they are inalienable.
  [Available free on the Ayn Rand Institute website or in The Virtue of Selfishness]

2. “The Nature of Government” – Ayn Rand

• Explains the proper role of government and how it is derived from the need to protect rights.
  Also in The Virtue of Selfishness.

3. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand (Selected passages or full novel)

• Especially the speech by Judge Narragansett in Galt’s Gulch and Galt’s speech on the nature of man. This is the dramatized form of Rand’s political philosophy.

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