With the high level of technology and financial resources of the United States, we can and should expect our citizens–all of us–to have what we need to thrive.
That means people of all ages, abilities, wealth/incomes, and backgrounds should have the conditions to achieve liberty, security, and good health.
Liberty
Everyone should have the ability to live as they want and pursue fulfillment. That includes:
- Right to shape government and full and equal access to public services;
- Ability to choose one’s way of life, follow one’s dreams, and have individual control of decision making;
- Freedom to move where and as one wants;
- Freedom from violence and other unjust harm (a.k.a. “security of person”); and
- Access to buildings, products/services, and environments that are universally accessible (a.k.a. “universal design”).
Security
Everyone should be able to build financial and other resources and expect their future is reasonably safe from shocks that threaten their way of life. That includes:
- Ability to build durable wealth and a rewarding career;
- Ability to prepare for disasters and dangers while keeping valuables safe;
- Ability to build and maintain close family and community networks, including physically-near intergenerational living arrangements; and
- Reasonable assistance and protections against significant stressors and setbacks, including around the events of having children, aging, and dealing with unexpected challenges such as costly health problems, loss of a job, and loss of one’s home.
Good health
Everyone should be able to live a physiologically-full life free of unnecessary dangers and stressors, fully benefiting from the advances in modern public health and medicine. That includes:
- Ability to access safe shelter allowing adequate sleep and rest;
- Ability to have healthy natural movement in their daily life;
- Freedom from exposure to unnecessary dangers resulting from public planning and policy, including toxic pollutants and violence from structural design;
- Ability to have affordable good nutrition;
- Ability to physically access settings to experience connections with other people, build relationships, and achieve belonging; and
- Ability to access affordable high-quality preventive and treatment services to maintain and improve physical, behavioral, and emotional health, including for those in crisis.
In sum, we can and should hold policymaking and other development accountable to providing the conditions for liberty, security, and good health.
References
1 https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
See also the Moreworks bibliography
Moreworks 