Quote Originally Posted by Singlestack View Post
On other thing bothers me about gos' post: the word "right" Liberals just love to talk about "rights", whether it is an imagined "right to free healthcare" or Sandra Fluke's "right to taxpayer-funded contraception". Where do "rights" come from? Is a "right" a "right" because I say so, because a law says so, or because of some higher-level construct like the Bill of Rights or the Constitution?

In a free society, who or what limits our "rights"? Who or what says "businesses do not have an automatic right to be profitable"? I can find no such language in the Bill of Rights or Constitution, or in any local, state, or federal laws I'm aware of. In fact, the "right to pursue happiness" can absolutely be reasoned to include a right to have a profitable business - since this allows me to better provide for myself and my family - and therefore to "pursue happiness". Yes, prosperity and security most definitely make me happy.

So I challenge Mr gos and the other liberals/socialist/marxists here who subscribe to the notion "businesses do not have an automatic right to be profitable" to step forward and state what authority they have for making such a statement in our founding documents or laws, and clarify if that is just their personal opinion and otherwise unfounded/unsupported. If all they have is their opinion, then I totally reject their suppression of my freedom and right to pursue happiness.

Singlestack
Do you really think that the "right to pursue happiness" is equivalent to "the right to attain happiness"? If so, then we really have no common ground for discussion. If we want to interpret verbiage in the Constitution to our own benefit, then you should should be prepared for apoplexy over the manner in which some would interpret "promote the general welfare" (which, btw, is found in the Preamble to the Constitution - your reference to "pursuit of happiness" is not).

That said, other than the language outlining the right for a business venture to make a profit not being explicitly stated in any of the Founding Fathers' documents, I would have to say that it's my opinion that businesses do not have a right (legally protected, etc.) to earn a guaranteed profit. Feel free to educate me by providing cites that such a right exists. If it did exist, how is it protected?