This weekend, NPR interviewed Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE) and asked him a gotcha question: “is every American entitled to eat?” The segment was about cutting food stamps, and NPR’s agenda was clear: show that Republicans don’t care if Americans starve, which is why they want to cut food stamps. Smith answered, “Well, they – nutrition, obviously, we know is very important. And I would hope that we can look to…It is essential. It is essential.”
This was not enough for the media, who declared Smith a dunderhead: after all, doesn’t everybody have the right to food?
Imagine a land where there was a right to food, housing, and healthcare. Imagine that such rights were enshrined in the Constitution of that land. That would mean that everyone in that land could live free without the burden of worry over such basic resources, right?
Wrong.
The South African Constitution guarantees a “right” to all of these commodities. In fact, the Constitution even creates a legal duty for the government to help secure such commodities. Yet there are some 11 million “food insecure” people in the country, including 1.5 million children with chronic malnutrition and growth stunting. Life expectancy in South Africa is 57 years. There are currently 12 million people in the country without adequate housing. The population of South Africa is approximately 55 million…. read more
