Difference Between a Right and a Want

Friend, and fellow graduate from Clemson University's economics program Tate Watkins, recently started blogging. He asks this important question: what makes something a human right? Health care, education, and even high speed internet have been described as rights that all governments should seek to provide. But whether you go the US Constitution or inspirations for it, I find no mention of the products or services that should be provided to citizens. There was even intense political debate over whether the federal government should provide the supply of money. It wasn't even done until the 1860's. Democracies weren't created to provide a basic standard of living for everyone. They were created to ensure the right to pursue that living standard. Governments are meant to protect our basic liberties and forcing the purchase of certain products, even when they are beneficial, is just doing the opposite. How do you determine what a human right is? Ask the father of liberty, John Locke: “Man... hath by nature a power.... to preserve his property - that is, his life, liberty, and estate - against the injuries and attempts of other men.”