According to this quora answer [1] that quotes a whole bunch of court cases, the whole 'privilege, not a right' thing is bullshit.
Try taking it to the logical conclusion - what else is a privilege, and can therefore be arbitrarily denied? A bank account? Traveling by plane or train? Connecting your house to the power/water/sewage grid? Having a post address? Buying or renting a house? Sending your children to school? If you buy this logic, there's a whole bunch of 'privileges' that the state can deny you using some excuse, that would make living utterly impossible.
That the state takes away this right doesn't mean you should call it a privilege, just as you wouldn't call freedom a privilege because an innocent man was jailed.
Not to mention, we've built our whole society around driving. If we were built like the Netherlands, it'd be one thing, but driving is a necessity in the USA. Take it away and people can't even function in most places.
Yes, but be careful with the argument that it's bad because it forbids a necessity. It doesn't defend activities that are less 'necessary'. You don't need a soldering iron at home - the registered one at work is plenty. You don't need a decompiler, or a rooted smartphone, or to run unsigned kernels, or your own mail server. One by one, activities you're permitted to do can be chipped away, till all that's left is work and consuming sanitized entertainment.
I don't agree that it's a right, but these things are definitely needs that the government should ensure access to. I think of rights as things like equality and free speech. Calling it a privilege and pretending it's something you can just do without is insane. Healthcare is a similar issue. I don't think it's a right, yet I'm shocked by the number of people out there that literally want others to die, so they don't have to pay money.
Try taking it to the logical conclusion - what else is a privilege, and can therefore be arbitrarily denied? A bank account? Traveling by plane or train? Connecting your house to the power/water/sewage grid? Having a post address? Buying or renting a house? Sending your children to school? If you buy this logic, there's a whole bunch of 'privileges' that the state can deny you using some excuse, that would make living utterly impossible.
That the state takes away this right doesn't mean you should call it a privilege, just as you wouldn't call freedom a privilege because an innocent man was jailed.
[1] https://www.quora.com/Who-determined-that-driving-is-a-privi...