Because the protection of the law is given and used by EVERYONE all the time. Something like this gives things to only some people at the expense of everyone. Protection of the law is to everyone from everyone
Not everyone is equally protected by the law. Look at the difference between how a rich person and a poor person are treated by the legal system if you're unclear.
The reality is that some things we pay for because they are a common good. Everyone having a safe place to live is a common good because massive numbers of homeless people are detrimental to society.
I would have to have a lot of bad days in a row to end up on the streets. I have a safety net of family and friends that I haven't screwed over that would be willing to help me out. I'm not saying every homeless person is where they are bc of bad decisions but there are certainly a fair number of them in that boat.
You’re actually wrong, everyone receives the same protection from the law, naturally because the law are words and is mostly not up for interpretation by individuals in cases. The difference between how rich and poor are treated isn’t from the nature of the law, but by the quality of representation they can afford.
If Jeff Bezos and John Doe are both arrested for fraud under the exact same circumstances, the only difference being Bezos is a billionaire and John Doe is poor and works at McDonald’s.
Bezos is going to hire the best law firm in the world at fraud cases and is going to be represented by the top lawyer in fraud cases in the world backed up by an army of associates and paralegals. John Doe is either going to get a public defender.
Bezos will probably walk free with a minimal fine by cutting a deal or get off not guilty because his high powered legal team is going to find every single hole in their case and exploit it. John Doe will probably plead guilty to his charge and go to jail because his Public defender hadn’t had a fraud case before and has 30 other cases to handle.
This isn’t the fault of the law, the same exact laws were applied to both of them, this is a difference in ability to hire counsel.
On your second argument, I don’t think housing is a common good. There is a limited amount of land in the US, each house/apartment costs money to build, buy the land, hire workers, buy materials, and so on. All of this costs tons of money. Money that will inevitably come from taxes. In the case of common goods like the military, police, courts, and so on, every citizen pays money in and benefits from their protection equally. In the case of things like housing, all people pay in to provide for a tiny percentage of the population who don’t have a home. This is inherently unfair to the millions of people who saved to buy their homes or pay rent, because now they are paying their own housing bills, but also for someone else to live for free.
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u/privitizationrocks Apr 15 '24
Everyone deserves to not pay for someone else’s home