I recently joined a private group where I was asked about my religious/philosophical beliefs. This is not something I spend a lot of time thinking about, though like most folks in the US whose parents were born in the US, I was raised to believe in Jesus. The request got me thinking, and so I’ll share.
Basically, we come into the world, and we take three approaches to how we do things. We can choose to prioritize ourselves as individuals (sometimes extended to our families, biological or chosen), we can prioritize our community/species/humanity, or we can choose not to prioritize anyone and let others decide for us.
In the United States, we have it in writing that we prioritize humanity ("all ... are endowed ... with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.").
Except, we, as a nation, do not actually believe this. If we did, our laws would reflect that.
Let's start with Life. This right to Life would, of course, encompass the right to the necessities for life. Clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, adequate shelter from the elements (clothing and housing), and sustenance would all be guaranteed by our communities. We are told these are Unalienable Rights; these are not privileges we have to earn or purchase. It would also follow that preventing unnecessary death would be contained in that Right to Life, whether the death be from injury or treatable disease. Also included in that Right are precautionary measures to prevent illness and injury. If we really believe in that unalienable right to Life, our national resources would be allocated to support these things.
Liberty. This one is easy. People should only lose their freedoms if they have done actual harm to others or can be proved to have intended actual harm to others (including the "foreseeable likelihood" kind of intent, such as Driving While Intoxicated). Also, we would eliminate fines as a surrogate for imprisonment. Fines are really price tags, not punishments. They’re even called tickets -- if you buy a ticket, you can go as fast as you want down I-90. Prices vary.
Pursuit of Happiness. This is about having access to the knowledge/education you need to get good enough at something that is meaningful to you. It's being able to be educated to a job you love so that you don't have to work a day in your life. I’m sure there are jobs no one wants to do, like cleaning toilets. Automate those jobs.
The reason we can't make our economy work, is that instead of supporting everyone's unalienable rights, we're prioritizing some people over others. We have lots of excuses for this.
We can do better.