The Economic Bill of Rights or Second Bill of Rights

(I ran across this and found it interesting, especially as an overlay of todays economic uncertainty--well, you may be uncertain, I'm pretty sure we are nosediving into depression. By the way, when you read these rights, keep track of how many are in existence today--jef)

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(From the Wiki) The Second Bill of Rights was a list of rights declared by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the then President of the United States, during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944. In his address Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second "bill of rights", not constitutionally amended, but socio-economic and applied to the economy.

Excerpt from President Roosevelt's January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union^[1]:

“ 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.[2] “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:

1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
   
2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
   
3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
   
4. 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;
   
5. The right of every family to a decent home;
   
6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
   
7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
   
8. 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.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

[1]^ "State of the Union Address".
[2 ]This phrase is found in the old English property law case, Vernon v Bethell (1762) 28 ER 838, according to Lord Henley LC