What The Declaration of Independence Should Have Said

An AI narration of the article 'What The Declaration of Independence Should Have Said' by Jake Desyllas. The preamble of the US Declaration of Independence is among the most influential passages in the history of libertarian thought — but does it actually hold up to the way libertarians now think about rights? In this short piece, Jake Desyllas proposes a rewrite. He argues that "all men are created equal" claims more than is self-evident, that "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" obscures the underlying property-rights framework, and that the preamble's commitment to self-evident truths is better grounded in claims that cannot be denied without contradiction. The result is a tighter, more rigorous foundation for rights: self ownership, homesteading, and voluntary agreement, with universal law applying equally to all. First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2024/11/28/what-the-declaration-of-independence-should-have-said on 28 November 2024.