ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the right to an adequate standard of living amounts to a right against the state to be enabled to meet one's basic needs, insofar as it is possible for the state to be of assistance and provided that one's society is in favorable circumstances. Both the "welfare-promoting" right to an adequate standard of living, and the "autonomy-protecting" right to be free from arbitrary arrest, could in this way be described as defining both a required goal and a required constraint on the pursuit of other social goals. The most natural reply to the problem of innumerable obligations is to hold that the right to an adequate standard of living and similar rights are rights against the state. The Universal Declaration is concerned with the adequacy of a person's standard of living to the person's "health and well-being".
