To What Are We Entitled?

In the jungle, wild fruits fall from trees. Bees extract nectar from tropical flowers. Birds feast on berries and seeds. Small animals haul nuts, hoarding them in tree trunks for later.

Flies land, and thrive, on decay. Bacteria grow in stagnant waters. They all drink rainwater dropped from above.

For these resources, the animals pay nothing. For most organisms, nature provides everything. At one time, nature provided everything for humans too.

When I was a child, I was given a quarter each day to buy milk. My lunch was packed with peanut butter and jelly, fruit, and more. If I forgot my quarter, no milk was provided.

I started learning about transactional food by kindergarten. Some kids brought no food and received no milk. Their parents didn’t have enough money.

In every country on earth, there are kids whose parents don’t have enough, for one reason or another. It’s not the kid’s fault. It is often not the parents’ fault.

The average income in Bali for one person is less than two-hundred US dollars. Some families earn even less. Many Balinese families live in poverty.

Life in Bali is different, though. There are simple resources that can be obtained for little to nothing.

There’s a natural spring within the city I live. You can’t drink Bali’s tap water, so all water must be from acquired from safe sources like bottling facilities and springs.

Most tourists don’t know about this spring. They just buy bottled water for twenty-five cents a liter and call it “very cheap”, comparatively.

Here, if you bring your own water bottle and cap, a bottle holding seventeen liters (almost five gallons) will cost you the equivalent of six cents. Six cents for seventeen liters.

At that cost, it is literally lifesaving for a family earning less than two hundred per month. It’s a basic need, almost erased. Clean mineral water to boil rice, steam vegetables, make tea, and drink. It’s the difference between a healthy child and a sick child.

Can you imagine five gallons of spring water costing six cents where you live? I can, but I remember the consequences.

Where I grew up in Northern California, there were sometimes roadside springs. They were unmarked, and free. My parents would sometimes fill water bottles from these mountain springs.

Within a few years of being discovered, people and companies would purchase the land, so they could sell the spring water. The land would be fenced off, and NO TRESPASSING signs would be posted.

Is water not a human right? If water is not a human right, I’m not sure what is.

I believe in entrepreneurism and a free market. I also believe there should not be hungry or thirsty children in 2026, while expensive water bottles are stocked behind supermarket doors and good food is thrown in dumpsters, where it is locked up.

It is a morality issue.

There should be balance.

Indonesia operates as a mixed economy blending the free market with state intervention and social welfare goals.

For less than two dollars a month, comprehensive basic health and dental care is provided to citizens. Hospital stays are free, surgeries covered, cavities filled, teeth extracted, and infections treated.

Here, citizens are not required to obtain paid permits or licenses to fish for their food. There is also no maximum limit. If you catch eight fish, you can take home eight fish and feed your family for no cost.

There was a time that you could do this in America. Not in my time, or my mother’s time, but there was a time.

Of course, sustainability is important to consider. So, too, is starvation.

Meanwhile, many countries struggle with massive wealth inequality. Some humans have billions, while some humans literally have nothing.

Indonesian capitalism is officially guided by Pancasila philosophy, which emphasizes social justice and a balance between individualism and the collective good. The system is imperfect and a work in progress, but it exists, as evidenced by the price of water and antibiotics.

A prominent feature of this is price controls over essential commodities like water, rice, fuel for cooking and transportation, and electricity.

For a pound of rice, you’ll pay about forty cents in Bali. For a pound of local vegetables, you’ll pay pennies. For high-protein, plant-based tempeh, you’ll pay pennies. For a pound of chicken, less than two dollars.

Still, some families have no pennies when it’s time to eat.

For them, there is water spinach. Water spinach is similar to spinach and grows wild around flooded, privately-owned rice paddies. It is high in nutrients.

Rice paddies are rarely fenced off. Signs telling you not to enter do not exist. Local families collect it, and the rice farmers have no problem with this.

For locals who live in rural areas or near jungles, there is abundant fruit. They are able to pick up fallen fruit and feed their families with this. They can’t take it all, or sell it for profit, but they can avoid starvation, and not face fines, or trespassing charges.

In the jungle are wild bananas, guava, passion fruit, mango, and much more. There may be wild sweet potatoes, as well. A hungry family can get full on what nature provides, if necessary. If they have extra, they can dry it or freeze it at no extra cost.

There are ways to survive with dignity as a very poor person in Bali that are not available to similarly poor westerners.

Maybe Bali could teach us a thing or two about prioritizing the ingredients that sustain life for all people.

Celeste A Vale, Bali

June 20, 2026