by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The so-called 2nd Bill of Rights was introduced by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) during the Great Depression and read about as follows:
Every American has the right to:
1. A Job
2. An adequate wage and decent living
3. A decent home
4. Medical care
5. Economic protection during sickness, accident, old age or unemployment
6. A good education
So, what went wrong?
Somewhere along the line things did not work out they way they were intended to, it would appear, and America rally got into problems. The rich got richer and the poor poorer. Then again, despite the welfare state in Britain, instigated after WW2, the rift is getting wider there also, and the same probably is true also for the likes of Germany and others.
While I must say that I am happy to have the safety net of the welfare state in Britain such as free, at the point of delivery, healthcare (yes, we do pay for it through a tax that is taken out of our wages) and the same as to unemployment protection, I also do not like government interference in my life. I am also not overenthusiastic as to the taxes we are asked to pay, and especially the every increasing, it would appear, sales tax, the latter which is basically obligated to us by the unelected rulers in Brussels.
However, those same taxes do enable the infrastructure and such to be delivered for our use and benefit. Something that many who bemoan the fact that they have to pay taxes forget. They, even those that try to get out of paying taxes, still want to make use of the infrastructure, such as roads, etc., but seem to have no idea how this is all to happen without some money from us, collectively, going to pay for it.
The Big Society that Cameron is talking about is all fine and good but volunteers are not going to pay for or build our roads and such like, neither social housing nor hospitals, where the use will be free at delivery.
Doing things for ourselves is, obviously, what we should be doing and we also should make provisions, if we can, for our old age and for medical care (extra and special medical care, say). There are many people, however, those in low income jobs, who have no chance to do that and thus, unless we want to have conditions as they existed before those provisions where, when you did not have the money, you could not get a doctor and thus you, more than likely, would have to die.
The same with unemployment where is was a case of beg to survive, often living in hovels or on the street, which is still frequently, unfortunately, the case in the USA.
America is probably one of the few rich developed countries where families, with young children even, are forced to live on the streets when they fall on hard times. To say that that is a disgrace for a nation such as the USA is an understatement.
© 2012
