The Cost of Rights by Stephen Holmes

Author:Stephen Holmes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2012-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

• Social norms, and sometimes law, now discourage environmentally destructive behavior. In many circles, littering invites social disapproval. Recycling is common; people willingly recycle. Companies engage in a wide range of activities designed to reduce pollution, presumably to escape social disapproval and to act responsibly. One of the most effective environmental programs simply requires companies to make available to the public information about their toxic releases. Responding to public pressure, companies have substantially reduced their emissions. A more trivial but in its way remarkable example: In big cities, people clean up after their dogs.

• In general smoking has declined. From 1978 to 1990, a steep drop in cigarette smoking took place. The decline was especially pronounced among young African Americans, who have been exercising responsibility where they once indulged their liberties. The smoking rate among blacks between the ages of 18 and 24 fell from 37.1 percent in 1965, to 31.8 percent in 1979, to 20.4 percent in 1987, to 11.8 percent in 1991, to 4.4 percent in 1993. (There has been a disappointing rise since that time, but rates remain low by earlier standards.) Part of the decline stems from the fact that smokers no longer enjoy the legal rights they once took for granted: in many places, smoking is now illegal. Part of the drop-off also reflects a growing perception that smoking is harmful to both self and others.

• Whereas employers could once fire employees at will, they no longer have this right, at least not in its 1950s form. As a result of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, civil rights laws, workers’ compensation laws in their modern guise, and common law developments, employers are now constrained in their authority to dismiss employees. Employers now labor under a legal duty to provide a safe workplace, and they can no longer discharge employees on discriminatory grounds. Social norms also discourage irresponsible (which is to say arbitrary) discharges.

• Employers and teachers were once free to engage in sexual harassment. Indeed, the very category of “sexual harassment” did not exist until recently, and both social norms and law authorized teachers and employers to seek sexual favors from those over whom they exercised power. Employers and teachers were essentially licensed to indulge in what is now punishable as harassing behavior. A traditional right has therefore been legally extinguished. Responsible behavior in this area is increasingly widespread, partly because of new law, and partly because of patterns of social disapproval that are inducing men to behave more responsibly.

• In many states, men no longer have a legal right to rape their wives. As a result of new legislation, husbands must act more responsibly. Sexual intercourse must be consensual even within marriage.

• Until recently, racist and anti-Semitic statements were common fare even in relatively public places. Such statements are still largely uncontrolled by law, and bigots have a legal right to utter racial slurs if they are so inclined. But many Americans shun talking in such irresponsible ways or at least do so less often than they once did.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.