Is drinking water a basic human right?

Question

I mean if you don't drink it you die right? Well I recently saw an interview with T. Boone Pickens and he said that drinking water is not a human right. If T. Boone Pickens could own the rights to the air you breath he wouldn't consider breathing a baisc human right either. T. Boone is one of the 130,000 people who control 80% of the wealth in this country. I'm telling you people that if we continue to allow unbridled capitalism. We are going to end up under the control of a totalitarian system just like the Soviet Union. Cus the Soviet Union was nothing, if it wasn't a giant corporation. Cold, dispassionate and inhumane in it's pursuit of efficiency.
Oh yeah! To broaden my question: Do you think that life is a basic human right?
http://www.thespeciousreport.com/2002_tboone.html

It falls from the sky Chester. Don't you wish money did that?

It falls from the sky Chester. Don't you think God meant you to have it. He designed you so that you shutdown if you don't use it. Life definitely is one of the freedoms that the Founding Fathers knew to be self evident.

I definitely got you DD.

Ahhh Chester, but there is a difference between a municipality, owned of, by and for the people and a corporation that is only interested in effciency and profits. I'm very sorry that you can't see that difference. If water is not a basic human right to you then what the hell is. Dude

Answer 1

Ummm.... A person has only those rights that they can defend. Everything else is words and scraps of paper. Take for example, the ridiculously "convicted" gulag laborer who was guaranteed enough food to eat and a variety of "rights" that were not taken seriously. Ya know what I mean?

Answer 2

Water a human right? I never considered it as such, any more than food, shelter, clothing or medical attention.

As for the 130,000 who control 80% of the wealth, so what? The other 300,000,000 of us seem to be doing just fine for the most part. We're living better than 99% of everyone who has ever lived before us. Even the poor in this country have plenty of cheap (virtually free) safe water to drink, plenty of food on the table, a safe and comfortable place to live, with heat and basic appliances, and luxuries like cars, TVs, stereos, etc.

Unbridled capitalism will only create more wealth, and allow all of us to live better lives, even if some get richer than others.

Unlike you, I don't begrudge the rich their wealth. For the most part, they've earned it by providing the rest of us with valuable goods and services. That's the nature of capitalism. Bill Gates may be worth more than a million americans, but he's also vastly helped increased the wealth of millions of americans and businesses by making all of us more productive and by spreading easy to use and feature rich computing to the rest of us.

You think socialism in some form is a great thing? Please tell us about all the new wealth, products and services that socialists have ever created. Socialists don't create wealth, they merely re-distribute it.

Capitalism creates wealth, new products, and new services. It constantly seeks to improve all the above for us all. It was capitalists that created the light bulb, the automobile, the electrical grid, the PC, the telephone, refrigeration, mass production, etc. and then brought them all to the marketplace so we could buy them. Without the lure of riches and the ability to improve one's life, there is no incentive to invent or improve.

Look at the telephone system. For decades it was a regulated monopoly in the USA, virtually a state industry, and not much really changed over that time. Then in the 80's, it was broken up and deregulated, and suddenly the improvements in services and efficiencies started pouring out. All of a sudden, we could have answering machines, a wide variety of phones with lots of new features, very cheap long distance, flexible calling plans, fax machines, computer modems, etc.

Answer 3

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Don't remember water being part of that. If someone has to drill a well or treat water to make it healthy than no. Water is a basic human right in that you can drink it, if you can find it for free. If you want clean water, i.e. from your city for example, than sorry dude you have to pay. If it was a basic human right wouldn't it be free?

Answer 4

This guy you are speaking of is a nut, typical liberal, its not a "basic human right" as it was put out, its a basic human NEED, we have to have water to survive, theres no "right" to it, iT IS A NEED, that we have to have. We cannot survive without it, period. As far as the capitalism of the water thing, its all about someone making money off of something that is a natural resource when the bottled water you get and pay for, is nothing but regular water, you put a filter on your home faucet and you get the same results, and all you have to do is pay a water bill.(something we all do).

Answer 5

... it's the conservative relative morality kicking in again...

cry, cry cry about how everyone is immoral... unless you can make money off of it... then "who cares about morals"...

it's funny how personal morality is heralded, but business ethics are not a big concern for them...

but I think that you have to have it... I don't know if it's a right exactly... but thousands die each year from dirty water... it's at the very least a moral issue...

Answer 6

start stock pilling water buy a litre bottle of water a day in a few years you will be glad u did as well as tinned food global warming will destroy crops and kill the animals in the oceans we cannot reverse it, its going to happen

Answer 7

Life & Liberty

Answer 8

It should be.