The claim has been made that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are rights that exist independent of the state. However, I would argue that without the civil structure of the state such “rights” would disappear or be made subservient to other natural rights or laws. For instance, outside of the state you do not have a “right” to your life or property; survival of the fittest rules, which allows any thug(s) who are stronger, more numerous or better armed than you to relieve you of your life, liberty and property (and it seems sans life, liberty and property that happiness would suffer, too). As a result one should be able to conclude that the state is necessary to protect these rights, and that these rights actually stem from that protection.
It is also important to note that as the state protects your rights, it protects the rights of others. You can no more steal the life, liberty or property of others than they can steal yours. This implies that the property you seek to protect must be yours, acquired by willful trade with another or produced by your productive effort. It also implies that the life you seek to sustain must be maintained by this same productive effort; you have no claim on the productivity of others, even to sustain your life.
This results in the identification of an unstated postscript that should have followed the enumeration of the rights outlined above and upon which they are entirely dependent: by your own effort. It is the failure to state this postscript that has allowed the distortion of these rights such that people now claim the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at the expense of others. This is a dangerous precedent that must be vigorously opposed. Towards that end I propose the following re-written portion of our Declaration of Independence be promulgated at every opportunity:
“We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness by their own effort;”
There; that’s better.