and let’s uncover our greatness and our ability to resolve our internal conflicts with victorious actions.
“Hope and optimism can only be founded on right thought and right action that people can see and feel.”
—Richard G. Lazar, PhD
FDR’s 1944 Economic Bill Of Rights and Dwight Eisenhower’s Warning
Please read FDR’s last gasp message to Congress in 1944 shortly before he passed on after three terms as President of the USA. Amazing but not shocking that opposition from the very wealthy was as true as it is now in 2009. We at the Build Products That Create Jobs Institute see FDR’s vision as a clarion call to each of us. Note that FDR urged us to fix America first even though WWII was not yet over. We see it that way now. Americans must come first and now. I call upon those Americans who are investing in Brazil, India and China to help us by investing in Americans and in this once great, industrialized nation. Peaceful China is winning the new world war through their economic growth and our economic decay. No, this is not a recession. Unless we produce products that are tangible and real we will never get to increase, grow and compete in the global arena. In the past two years, since we proposed 17 New Product Areas for innovation in our nation, China and India have made more progress in many of them while the USA lags far behind. We also do not lead in any of them, yet. So get your communities awake and do not be fooled. Jobs will not come back magically when the so-called recession is over. It will never be over. Wake-up. Build Products That Create Jobs through our Community Resurgence Plan. (Visit www.BuildProductsCreateJobs.com)
And then . . .
Read President Eisenhower’s powerful speech on the threat of the Military-Industrial Complex and his economic analysis of the costs of the cold war to the USA in human terms. See how he and President Roosevelt share a common vision and common values. No political sideshow as two giants came to the end of their outstanding lives of service urging us all to assure the strength of our nation that once was and must be again.
Richard G Lazar, PhD
October 12, 2009
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Economic Bill of Rights
Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress 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;
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.
source: The Public Papers & Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Samuel Rosenman, ed.), Vol XIII (NY: Harper, 1950), 40-42
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Military-Industrial Complex Speech
Excerpted from 1961 speech as quoted by Robert Schlesinger
This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.
In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.
II.
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
III.
Throughout America’s adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the
