I saw Capitalism: A Love Story this weekend, and it made me cry. Not just the parts where other people are crying (a kid talking about Walmart making a profit off of her mom’s death, people crying with joy when it’s announced that Obama’s won the election) — seeing other people cry always makes me cry. But Michael Moore found footage believed to be lost of FDR proposing a second bill of rights, which would include the following:
- 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.
Watching him lay out these rights made me cry.
Then Michael Moore goes on to show that European countries and Japan got these rights when we helped them write their constitutions after WWII.
Even Iraq now has guaranteed state-funded medical care for all citizens in the constitution that, for all intents and purposes, we wrote for them.
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