Monday, April 6, 2009

#2: The Pursuit of Happiness Definition Skewed

Man’s “unalienable” right to the “pursuit of happiness” is acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence. Nowhere in our founding documents is there written the right to have one’s “happiness” supplied or subsidized by the government. Some Americans now expect and/or desire, as part of their presumed right to happiness, government entitlements in the form of paid mortgages, healthcare, and higher education. Some politicians believe that it is the right of every American to have these entitlements provided at taxpayer expense. Such was not the intent of the founders of this country. Such is not the role of the government.
Certainly, Thomas Jefferson did not contemplate government entitlements as he penned the words “pursuit of happiness.” The term “pursuit of happiness” has been interpreted as narrowly as the right to pursue economic goals and as broadly as the right to pursue a general feeling of contentment and pleasure. Regardless of how the end goal is defined, one word does not change in our analysis, i.e., “pursuit.” There is no guarantee to happiness, no entitlement to happiness, no right to happiness. The right that exists is the pursuit of happiness. Many Americans, especially elected officials, have chosen to ignore this one word.
Just this one word, pursuit, tells much. The true measure of happiness comes as the result of one’s own hard work and self-reliance. Such was the vision of our founding fathers. Such is the spirit of the American dream.

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