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If Life is a "Constatutional Right" then everyone gets free food and water! | 397 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
If Life is a "Constatutional Right" then everyone gets free food and water!
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, November 18 2012 @ 01:54 AM EST
>We have safety nets (both private and public) to catch people who are in
really bad shape,

How well those safety nets work, depends upon:
i) which part of which state one is in;
ii) how much the person reviewing your file "likes" you;
iii) your ethnicity;
iv) your national origin;

If you are of the wrong ethnicity, or wrong national origin, the odds are
stacked against you, in receiving the assistance that the safety net supposedly
provides.

This, of course, assumes that the "safety net" is supposed to provide
assistance to those in distress.

###

Homelessness is probably the most visible example of where both publicly run and
privately run safety nets consistently fail. The big irony here, is that with a
couple of minor changes in official government policy, and the shunting of
dollars from half a dozen specific programs, to a different set of programs,
homelessness would abolished literally overnight.

We know the causes of homelessness. It can be prevented, and at a lower cost
than the current dysfunctional when present, but usually non-existent systems
for getting people out of homelessness.

>Claiming that you have a "Constitutional Right" to Cell Phone
service is the silliest thing I have heard yet.

FWIW, the IRS factors in the cost of cell phone service, in determining the
minimum amount that one can live on. They no longer consider cell phones to be a
luxury, but rather a necessity.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

If Life is a "Constatutional Right" then everyone gets free food and water!
Authored by: PJ on Sunday, November 18 2012 @ 09:24 AM EST
Alternatively, how about the government, which is
just us folks, provide regulations that will compel
telephone companies to provide reliability within
the range of reasonable expectations? Why wouldn't
that be important for a government to do, considering
that protecting citizens is government's first
job? They tell us that we must give up rights
to privacy etc. because protecting citizens is
the first role of the government, after all. So if
that is so, extrapolate and you can see that protecting
human life is a proper governmental role. Because
people can't do it for themselves. And by the
way, the phone companies are trying now to get out
of the landline business. So that is not a
longterm solution, particularly if you argue, as you
do, that governments shouldn't tell phone companies
what to do.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

If Life is a "Constatutional Right" then everyone gets free food and water!
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, November 18 2012 @ 12:40 PM EST

Nobody claimed that cell phone access is a consistutional right. From the article:

What’s more, those that sell network connections in the U.S. are trying to claim a constitutional right to operate without any federal oversight.

PJ made the comment that life is a constitutional right too, and a more important one.

The point here is that corporations that take on the responsibility of operating and maintaining an infrastructure are trying to back out of responsibilities that are an inherent part of the operation. Outages are no doubt unavoidable in a storm like that. Being prepared for emergencies can make a significant difference in how long those outages last. Mobile phones are too important in modern society to make that optional for an operator.

Not being a USian I had to look up the lifeline service you mention. From the FCC page on it:

Lifeline is a government benefit program that provides discounts on monthly telephone service for eligible low-income consumers to help ensure they have the opportunities and security that telephone service affords, including being able to connect to jobs, family, and 911 services.

[...]

Lifeline provides discounts on monthly telephone service (wireline or wireless) for eligible consumers.

Emphasis mine. It seems that being able to reach 911 using a mobile phone is a reasonable expectation. That's why mobile operators should be prepared for emergencies.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

If Life is a "Constatutional Right" then everyone gets free food and water!
Authored by: albert on Sunday, November 18 2012 @ 03:25 PM EST
"If Life is a "Constatutional Right" then everyone gets free food
and water!" is an absurd non-sequitur.

'Life' is an "unalienable right" given to us to the Creator, according
to the Declaration of Independence (..."that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness...."). Thus it is not necessary to legislate those
things; they are God-given.

The Constitution (note the spelling) was established to, among other things,
"..promote the general welfare..".
State, Federal, and local governments provide emergency services like police
& fire, FEMA, National Guard. NGOs are active as well. Perhaps we have
become TOO dependent on cell phones. which were never conceived as emergency
communications.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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