The Cost of Rights – Why Liberty Depends on Taxes - Hardcover

Holmes, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393046702 ISBN 13: 9780393046700

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999

Synopsis

All legally enforceable rights cost money. This is a practical, common sense notion but one ignored by almost everyone. To "fight for your rights," or anyone else's, is not just to debate principles but to haggle over budgets. Most conservatives imagine that rights our exercised to property, speech, and religion "free" of government "interference". Yet such rights would not exist if the government could not collect taxes to codify, protect and enforce them. Meanwhile, most liberals prefer to avoid the harsh reality that spending resources on some rights means not spending them on other, perhaps more valuable, rights. The insights that rights are expensive is a reminder that freedom is not violated by a government that taxes and spends. Rather, freedom requires such government and requires a citizenry vigilant about how money is allocated. This work seeks to change the terms of the USA's critical and contentious political debates.

About this title

Review:

"Holmes and Sunstein look at the rights debate with a new clarity and pragmatism. Their arguments are powerful against both left and right." -- Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times

"Stephen Holmes and Cass Sunstein, two of America's leading political and legal theorists, build a compelling argument that much political debate is distorted by false dichotomies. By focusing on the budgetary implications of rights, they bring a refreshing clarity to the perennial contests between conservatives and liberals about law, welfare, tax and other issues." -- The Economist

From the Back Cover:

All legally enforceable rights cost money. A practical, commonsense notion? Yes, but one ignored by almost everyone, from libertarian ideologues to Supreme Court justices to human rights advocates. The simple insight that rights are expensive reminds us that freedom is not violated by a government that taxes and spends, but requires it - and requires a citizenry vigilant about how money is allocated. Laying bare the folly of some of our most cherished myths about rights, this groundbreaking tract will permanently change the terms of our most critical and contentious political debates.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0393046702
• ISBN 13: 9780393046700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256