The right to an adequate standard of living is listed as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was accepted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948.United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The right to an adequate standard of living can be linked to both article 1 and 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Furthermore, it has been written down in article 11 of the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The predecessor of this right, the Freedom from Want, is one of the Four Freedoms that American President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of at his State of the Union of January 6, 1941. According to Roosevelt it is a right every human being everywhere in the world should have. Roosevelt described the third right as follows:
Economic perspectives Economists, libertarians, and classical liberals have raised several objections to the concept of a right to an adequate standard of living, particularly when understood as imposing positive obligation on the state to provide resources or services.
Robert Nozick argued in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) that redistributive taxation to achieve patterned distributions of wealth (including guarantees of minimum living standards) violates individuals' entitlements to their justly acquired holdings. Under his entitlement theory of justice, once property has been acquired through just means and transferred voluntarily, any forced redistribution constitutes a violations of rights, akin to forced labor.
Critics further contend that positive rights of this kind conflict with traditional negative liberties (freedoms from interference). Enforcing a right to housing, food, or social services requires compelling some individuals to provide for others, thereby infringing on property rights and freedom of association. Friedrich Hayek warned that expansive welfare commitments tend to increase state power and central planning, eroding the rule of law and individual liberty.
See also Economic, social and cultural rights Human right to water and sanitation
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