One man´s freedom violates the other man´s freedom/rights. Easiest example would probably be smoking. Many smokers consider being allowed to smoke
anywhere freedom (and fight against the prohibitions in certain areas), while non-smokers want to walk around in better air without smelling the CS
and avoid the possible health effects from passive smoking.
Same goes for guns. How to ensure that your right for a firearm does not interfere with my right of safety
from you shooting at me.
Some (idiots) consider they have the freedom to drive after a few beers. Again the safety issue comes. I want the freedom to walk around safely
without a drunk (idiot) hitting me with his car...
There are more and more people living more and more closely nowadays. At some point the freedoms and rights start to interfere with each other and
lines need to be set, otherwise there will be a situation where all more "assertive" and egoistic people who do not care about anything than
themselves will simply do whatever they want and others have no freedom to do what they want. I want to sleep, yet that guy wants to party. Unless
late-night loud music is banned from my house, I can not sleep...
Just a comparison between freedoms I have round here, which I did not have in the area where I lived at US.
Freedom to choose transportation way - whether pedestrian, bicycle riding, public transportation or car - all have equal opportunities for moving
around. In the area I lived at in US, only car owner´s had rights, other transportation had far fewer opportunities and was dangerous (especially
bike).
Right not privilege of education - ability to get very strong education without debts and independently without parents supporting a university
student. Money can not buy you better education round here - rich kid has exactly the same opportunities as the poor kid to get to the strongest
schools and universities in the area- you need brain not money for education.
More internet freedom.
Freedom not privilege of healthcare. Whoever your parents, whoever you are, you get quality healthcare from same doctors whom the president or some
other VIP would use, unless they hire personal doctor or use private clinics, which are not very common round here. I have personally seen top
athletes, top CEOs waiting for same doctors as I use.
Freedom for cheap quality food - GM-s are not allowed, organic non-pesticide food gets significant benefits compared to non-organic food, which keeps
the prices low.
Freedom of not getting shot by a lunatic/criminal. The laws have driven the prices of black-market guns very up (so you need to be rich in order to
afford one from there), while the background checks make it nearly impossible for lunatics to own a weapon legally (unless they are able to fool the
psychiatric evaluation which is not easy= , while a normal person can get one for self-defense. Criminals do not have guns round here, so I do not
need to worry about a burglar or robber having one.
Freedom of no worries about hitting rock bottom, as I know when things go bad, the social safety net helps me out of it. Not taking advantage of it
but the knowledge of getting what you paid for when things go bad.
Freedom of not getting sued for absurd reasons - looking at how often absurd court cases are popping up from US, I was threatened with lawsuit couple
of times, although round here only common sense court cases reach the court.
US is thought to be the land of "opportunites" and free, while at the end at least personally I believe to have far more freedoms, rights and
opportunities than I had in US considering I am coming from middle-class family.
edit on 7-10-2013 by Cabin because: (no reason given)