FDR's SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS

Of all the cliches, the one I'm tiredest of hearing is: "You're lucky to have a job!"

I understand what people are getting at and I know their heart is in the right place. But their thinking is not.

To me, telling someone they are lucky enough to be able to earn a living ranks up there with telling them they're lucky they can walk down the street unmolested. Aren't these things simple human rights?

Let's face it: When you sell your labor to someone, that someone is profiting from it. Otherwise they wouldn't buy it. They aren't doing you a favor, they're doing themselves a favor.

Don't we all have the right to eat and have a roof over our heads? Isn't society structured in such a way that, in general, you're supposed to go out and get these things for yourself? If that is true, obtaining the means to make it happen should be an avenue available to everyone.

What's more, there is NO REASON why that opportunity should not exist for all who want to avail themselves of it. If there are production and service needs, and there are (we're currently sucking at: schools, hospitals, universal health care, roads, untainted food, alternative energy, inner city recreation facilities, diverse and meaningful mass media, etc), then employment should be going up. The problem is not that there's no work, the problem is that we have an economy that is based on things other than the basic needs of the citizenry.

Things like greed.

The figures on wealth distribution vary a little but no serious analyst argues that it's anything but top heavy. My source here is Prof. G. William Domhoff from the sociology department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Here's what he says:

"In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%."

Furthermore, we are so brainwashed into being a titanic consumer society that our economy has become heavily weighted on providing things people want (and have been trained to want) rather than the things we all really need. Like top drawer education for all, no questions asked.

Phony capitalism (we DO NOT have real capitalism) is smoke and mirrors. Advertising and PR and propaganda. You need this pill, that outfit, the car that can go from zero to 60 in the blink of an eye. (I always wonder about those car ads: Why do we need super powerful cars capable of immense speeds when we have speed limits and, well, lots of people dying on the roads. I'm not sure if that's a legal issue, a moral one, or both. Probably both.)

My point remains: Work is a basic human right. A real economy based on need and altruism requires lots of labor. And every individual should be considered equally important in their desire to provide for themselves and their loved ones. It SHOULD NOT be a given that CEOs and other deadbeats who know how to swim with the sharks get most of the goodies and then, when any of us furrows our brow, tell us that we're lucky to have a job.

And so it was with some satisfaction that I saw in Michael Moore's excellent documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" that President Franklin D. Roosevelt [pictured above] actually came up with a Second Bill of Rights that expressed exactly what I'm talking about here. This is FDR's list (and no, it has never been officially brought into law, let alone christened as an actual Second Bill of Rights):


"FDR’s Second Bill of Rights/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:

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;
* And finally, 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."

If you'd like to see a YouTube clip of FDR actually reading this, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EZ5bx9AyI4

It's time we reasserted our rights as citizens and workers. You don't have to live life on your knees. Your rights and your value are as important as the richest of the rich -- many of whom, in their infinite "superiority," have recently been setting fire to our taxes on Wall Street.

Just remember this: You have rights, but it's up to you to assert them. After that, luck has not one damn thing to do with it.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

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