This is why we Occupy.
“The Economic Bill of Rights”
Excerpt from President Roosevelt‘s January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union[2]:
| “ | 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.”[3] 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 farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; 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. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world. |
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor,
and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior
of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which
are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and
probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual
benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of .the community exist*;
within that relation . . . Men with their families—wives, sons, and daughters—work
for themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole
product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of
hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number
of persons mingle their own labor with capital—that is, they labor with their own
hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed, and
not a distinct class . . .
Again: as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such thing as the
free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men
everywhere in these States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers . . .
This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to
all—gives hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of
condition to all . . .
Quoted from ‘Abraham Lincoln’ by Carl Sandburg, p.217