Is Water a Form of Wealth?

President Obama’s assertion that we should “spread the wealth around” was met with disgust from free-marketers and other economic conservatives. For them, what you earn—what is rightfully yours—should not be redistributed to others. Their belief is not unfounded, and I do believe there is something to be said for personal gain. Nonetheless, I do think the Capitalistic desire for excessive wealth is unhealthy. I can’t help but ask the question: What social benefit will manifest from your excess in wealth? That is not to say that the poor do not deserve the money they earn, or that in general a drive for money is unhealthy; after all, money is necessary for survival and even enjoyment. Unfortunately, more than ever, money is necessary for basic human survival. Hence we see a distribution of water; a distribution based upon wealth rather than on need. Ironically, it is those who can least afford this water that need it the most. For this reason, a redistribution of water is necessary. The one billion people who have little or no access to water need it much more than the wealthy bottled-water drinkers could imagine. But this produces a more fundamental question: Is water a form of wealth? It seems that the redistribution of water supplies currently being sold as commodity would entail both a limitation of free-market/capitalist principles (i.e. the limitation of private enterprise) and a redistribution of wealth. But water is not itself a form of wealth, it is a source of wealth. Furthermore, because water is a basic human need—only second to oxygen—it is immoral to make it a source of wealth if others are being deprived of it. Now certainly some of this water deprivation is environmental in cause. But this does not take away from our positive duty to supply water to those who are deprived of it. Proponents of economic freedom must make an exception: We should not deny other human beings a basic human necessity (in this case water) so that we may increase our wealth. Water is not wealth, it is life.