THE INDIVIDUAL ESTATE ACCOUNT HOME OF DEBT FREE MONEY
An
Economic Bill of Rights
Offered by
President Roosevelt in
His January 11, 1944, State of the Union Address
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 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 our citizens.
The economic rights
above, spelling out freedom
from want, are
largely repeated in the United Nations Declaration of
Human Rights. They were foreshadowed at the time of the
Civil War—as well a way to pay for them—by the
adoption of greenbacks as money for national purpose:
an analysis of the roots of greenbacks follows—again
in a different voice.
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