[ExI] arrested for what?

[Anders Sandberg]

On 24/12/2012 17:06, spike wrote:
>> ...First, the human rights declaration does not claim any human right to
> bear arms (to the non-US world it sounds downright crazy - and yes, there is
> a human right for *paid holidays* (article 25) in the tail end of that
> document). ...  -- Anders Sandberg
>
> Indeed?  A human right for paid holidays?  Whose holidays?  Who is obligated
> to pay for them?  Does it apply to contractors?  Part time employees?
> Defined how?

As you might know, I am not a fan of the Declaration. Human rights are 
not a bad idea (despite some philosophical problems about what the heck 
they *are*), but the rights that make most moral sense are negative 
rights: rights that people and governments do not have the right to 
infringe. Positive rights, stuff you have the right to get and others 
are obliged to provide to you, are another matter. They are far less 
plausible than the negative rights.

Finland recently declared Internet access to be a human right. That 
mostly means that you cannot be legally deprived of the right to access 
it, but it doesn't necessarily mean the government has to subsidize your 
Internet (this being Scandinavia, you can bet that that will be the next 
step anyway).


> Anders this blows my mind.  I can see why unemployment stays so high.  It
> seems the price of hiring humans just keeps rising, which further increases
> the incentive to replace employees with machines or foreign contractors from
> places which are not interested in human rights.

Yes. Although human rights are just encoding nice stuff: what to look 
for is what societies actually demand and get. As living standards go up 
and people become more coordinated, they will become better at demanding 
good pay and living conditions.

Note that it is easier to coordinate if you are employed - not just in 
unions, but in other ways too, from Facebook to joining political 
parties. People out of employment are often too disorganized to 
effectively get their wishes implemented. This is a reason the people on 
the inside can drive up the benefits for the people on the inside. Human 
rights at least try to claim they apply universally.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University