On Jan. 11, 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave an historic State of the Union address. In it he outlined an economic Bill of Rights.
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
Some progressives have argued that it's time to move on, that the FDR era and its supposedly moth-eaten legacy, ideas and ideals are no match for a 21st Century dominated by globalization and multinational oligarchy. To be sure, the New Deal legislation itself was a modest affair. And the economic bill of rights contains good ideas but nothing truly radical. It merely
seems radical given our current state of affairs. The failure came from the fact that all those rights Roosevelt spoke of 71 years ago had no specific legislation or executive orders or blueprints attached to them. Consequently, those rights are, for much of the population, far from attained.
We live in a time when the successors of the rightist plot to overthrow Roosevelt seek to pulverize the remnants of the New Deal, including the gem of his presidency, Social Security. Shamefully, as we keep seeing, these foes of working class Americans have allies for their efforts within FDR's own party. In terms of inequality of wealth and income, we are worse off than we were in '44. Higher education, decent housing, adequate health care and, of course, a "useful and remunerative" job are beyond the reach of far too many Americans. Should we not look upon these facts with shame and horror and a determination to transform them?
With a little tweaking—mention of a sustainable environment and gender equity, for instance—the excerpt from Roosevelt's speech would make a fine addition to any State of the Union address today. Of course, those clarion words need to be accompanied by practical proposals for achieving the enumerated rights, the kind of proposals a few progressives have been urging since, well, since FDR first presented the economic bill of rights.
Such proposals today have more enemies in and out of Congress than Roosevelt ever faced. But that does not mean a Democratic Party worthy of the name should abandon the attempt. The question, however, is whether it be made worthy of the name.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—It's Stupid's Economy:
As the (vastly underestimated) unemployment rate rises, retails sales disappoint, home sales continue to sink, the stock market takes another tumble, and the nation's top banks and mortgage lenders huddle together against the storm, economists have only one question: are we heading for recession, or are we already there.
The formal recognition of a start of a recession probably wouldn't come for at least six months if not more than a year, as official judges from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) pour through various economic readings.
But top economists from two of the major Wall Street firms—Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs—say recession is likely already here.
Now or six months from now, there's little doubt that US economy has run out of steam, and unlike recent recessions, economists fear that we're going to be a long time recovering from this slump. Why? Because we've taken all the elastic out of the system. ...
On the Democratic side, it would be terrific to see candidates whose solution doesn't begin and end with the phrase "tax cuts." It would also be nice to see one that wasn't made up of one time expenditures that left the basic problems in place. The stimulus effort that have worked best in the past involved a good injection of funds into public projects and into areas of the economy that could help reverse the downward slide. Tax cuts don't help if you're not making any money to be taxed on in the first place. Jobs help. Education helps.
Tweet of the Day
Greetings, 2003. Currently a Republican Speaker is agonizing over how to make House cafeteria fries sound even more French. Love, 2015.
— @brianbeutler
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin leads discussion (in which
Armando joins) of
Charlie Hebdo reactions, and the many & varying issues swirling around them, around the world & right here at
Daily Kos. Also discussed: the attempt to make a political issue of Obama's non-attendance at the Paris demonstration. DA who declined to indict over the Eric Garner death says no talking about it. The filibuster & "getting things done." GunFAIL stories that show how divided we are even on the definitions of the things we're "debating." And let's all give Chris Christie control of the NSA & drones, because he's already using gov't to spy on political enemies.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments