alt Hacker NewsWhen do we become good enough at something that it becomes a basic human right? The libertarian counter-argument to this would be, this is only true if someone else doesn’t have to provide the clean drinking water. If drinking water in that part of Texas is naturally unsafe, then, someone has to volunteer to provide it, or people have to do it themselves.
People use a similar argument in medicine, and I think the counter-counter argument to that is, I dunno the statistic is but like I think many doctors get into medicine hoping to help people that can’t help themselves. Medicine is ubiquitous enough, and public opinion probably leans that way enough to build some conception of a human right around it.
We produce more food than we can consume, that and its relation to human flourishing mean I think providing food is a human right.
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You can only survive without water for about 3 days. Then you rapidly start dying. Yes, it's a basic human right. If you deprive people of it willfully you are literally killing them. It's not abstract.
I don't think the libertarian argument applies to prison.
You must provide water to prisoners; asking them to get it themselves is absurd. If the local water is unsafe, the prison should be relocated.
One gotta love the libertarian arguments for death penalty for everything including minor crimes.
It's not a right. It's a responsibility.
I think framing it from the other side makes the whole idea a lot more palatable.
If I work hard to create clean drinking water from dirty, it is not your right to take it from me. It is my responsibility to help a fellow human being.