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Comment by cryogospel | Hacker News Reader

why should I be able to live in a better house than you just because my parents left me money when they died?

Our ancestors built this nation. We current citizens are their heirs. Whatever benefits there are to having been born here, those benefits should accrue only to citizens.

America is ours, we and our ancestors built it. If there are any benefits to living here, they belong to us, and not to foregners. Likewise, my nice house belongs to me and not to you, despite the fact that it was purchased with money willed to me by my parents.

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I take it that you also claim personal responsibility for any and all the sins that your ancestors and elder Americans have done?

This is a valuable point, though I don't agree with it. Inheritance is really more like giving gifts to people you like. That's part of freedom. Some people give their inheritance to charity or friends instead of their children. So really if you get a gift because somebody likes you, that's because you're lucky, likable, or whatever reason they had. It's not a fundamental right though.

The idea of personal property is completely off the topic. Of course your house is yours, but it's not automatically your children's when you die. That's a choice you're free to make.

As for "we built America". You mean "People of Earth built America" It wasn't done in isolation. It depended on international trade and influx of valuable workers from other countries. You could equally argue that America belongs to Italians because there lots of Italian people helped build it.

> America is ours, we and our ancestors built it.

America is and was built by immigrants who have (had?) little more in common with you than the Indians in the story. Basically nothing really, except a common geographic area and some shared ideals.

>why should I be able to live in a better house than you just because my parents left me money when they died?

you shouldn't.

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