Rights vs. Rations—Do Your Kids Know the Difference?

Imagine walking into a restaurant, sitting down at a table, and demanding a steak dinner.

You didn’t save up to go out for a nice meal. You don’t check the menu prices before you order to make sure you can afford it. You simply sit down and demand a steak be brought to you because, after all, food is a human right.

Pretty ridiculous, right? 

But isn’t that what’s actually happening when people claim they have a right to free housing, free healthcare, free education, or free internet?

A right is something inherent—something you possess simply by virtue of being human. You don’t need anyone else to give it to you, you don’t need a vote to secure it, and you certainly don’t need the government to provide it to you. 

But that’s not how most people think about rights today. Instead, the modern view of “rights” is an ever-growing list of things people believe they are owed or entitled to.

Here’s the fundamental problem: If your so-called “right” forces someone else to work for you, pay for you, or serve you, then it’s not a right.

Real rights don’t require anyone else’s sacrifice.

• You have a right to free speech—but not a right to be heard. No one is obligated to publish your opinions or give you an audience.
• You have a right to defend yourself—but not a right to someone else’s protection. You can own a firearm, but no one is required to stand guard over you.
• You have a right to own property—but not a right to take from others to get it.
• You have a right to seek medical care—but not a right to force a doctor to work for free.
• You have a right to work—but not a right to a job. No employer owes you a position, and no customer is obligated to buy from you.

P.J. O’Rourke put it bluntly:

“Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery—hay and a barn for human cattle.”

When you think of it that way, you start to think that maybe this ever-expanding list of so-called rights isn’t so much about a benevolent government wanting to take care of you, but about a small group of powerful elites using these enticements to keep you poor, helpless, and dependent on them for your daily survival.

That doesn’t feel much like freedom.

Frédéric Bastiat saw this nearly 200 years ago, and tried to warn us.

In his book, The Law, he warns that when governments start treating wants as rights, they transform the law from a tool of justice into an instrument of legal plunder—robbing some to benefit others, all in the name of “fairness.”

He writes:

“See whether the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See whether the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”

That’s exactly what happens when the government promises free healthcare, free college, or free housing. The moment those things become “rights,” they become justifications for taking from others by force.

We wrote The Tuttle Twins Learn About The Law (based on Bastiat’s The Law) to teach kids these fundamental truths before the world convinces them that government handouts are the same thing as freedom.

Don’t forget that we’re still running our Spring Break Bonus! 

That means that when you grab any Tuttle Twins book bundle, you’ll get a FREE copy of Lessons from a Lemonade Stand, our book that teaches kids about entrepreneurship and the true nature of economic freedom.

Oh, and in case you missed it—our Tuttle Twins Podcast is now live, and in video format! We’ve got three brand new episodes, so don’t forget to check them out!

The government and the public education system have, thus far, succeeded in convincing generations of people that dependence is freedom—that it’s oppression to labor by the sweat of your brow to scrape out a life that you can be proud of, and that real success looks like finding ways to force others to pay for your existence. 

Not only is this a lie, but it’s also exactly the opposite how you create a society of mentally and physically resilient people. It’s not how you foster a culture of freedom, innovation, and human flourishing. 

And that is by design. 

Because free people don’t let you take half their paychecks to fund endless entitlements for those who will not work. 

Free people don’t let those in power use their sons and daughters as pawns in endless wars. 

Free people don’t want a powerful government to “take care” of them—they want to be left alone to chart their own course and make their own way. 

We are determined to help parents raise the first generation in a very, very, long time of truly free people. That change starts around dinner tables, and on long car rides, where families like yours have meaningful conversations about the way the world is, and the ways it can and should be changed.

You’re laying a foundation of freedom each time you pick up one of our books, tune into our podcast, or take one of our courses with your kids. 

I’m really proud to get to be part of the important work you’re doing.

Thanks for bringing us along.

—Connor