The time is now — to revive and energize for the present era, a vital and relevant extension to the Bill of Rights.  This powerful understanding and vision of extending the Bill of Rights and what it could mean for the quality of life for the citizens of America was articulated by President Franklin Roosevelt in his State of the Union address to Congress on January 11, 1944.

After leading and guiding the nation through the social and economic cataclysm of the Great Depression and the global upheaval of World War II, with his health almost spent, but his visionary vigor still intact, President Roosevelt proposed his Second Bill of Rights to ensure a just and equitable society.

Here they are:

• The right to useful and remunerative jobs 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.

I am writing this blog three years after the most profound economic cataclysm since the Great Depression.   In the United States some of the basic underpinnings of this Second Bill are being profoundly threatened.  The political spotlight is being turned against the beleaguered middle class with many of the social benefits of say Bill Number 6 and Bill Number 7 above being chipped away as a mechanism to retool the federal budget and improve the overall economy.

The focus of political dialogue is about the government debt, ensuring that our attention is distracted from fully examining the historic and systemic causes of the financial meltdown of 2008, its long-term ramifications and what is needed to ensure a more just, equitable and balanced society.

The middle class has lost ground

Here are a few important facts to note: In 1928, the year before the great stock market crash of 1929, the richest Americans – the top 1% – took in over 23% of the national income.

Here is a table, by decade of how national income to that top 1% was distributed since 1928. (Data from Aftershock, p. 20, by Robert Reich)

• 1930s        16-17%
• 1940s        11-15%
• 1950s         9-11%
• 1960s        9-11%
• 1970s         8-9%
• 1980s        10-14%
• 1990s        15-19%
• 2005         21%
• 2007         27%

From the 1940s to the 1980s the top 1% of wealth-holders in this country didn’t acquire more than  10% of the national income.   But from 1970 to 2007, this tiny fraction of the population tripled their take of the national income to 27%.  At the same time the stability of the broadest social sectors of the society has been imperiled as this kind of income inequity becomes structuralized in the economy.   The middle and lower classes struggle ever harder to gain the simple benefits of the Second Bill of Rights.

A burning house pitching over a waterfall — A second set of figures to consider

The value of publicly-traded companies around the world reached a peak of $63 trillion in 2007.   Sixteen months later, in March 2009 the value had dropped by over 50% to $28.6 trillion.

In June 2007, the NYSE market cap was $16.6 trillion, more than the US GDP of $13.8 trillion at the time.  By March 2009, it was also almost halved to $7.9 trillion.   U.S. citizens lost close to $8 trillion in wealth in the stock market, and $6 trillion in the market value of their homes.

The advance of these two structural elements and events — the gargantuan transfer of wealth since the 1980s, and the unchecked high risk financial industry practices leading to colossal financial loss of 2008 is no accident.  They are the result of a political climate and tone of civic dialogue, over the last 30 years, that holds that taxes are automatically bad, government is a wastrel and interfering element of a free society, and regulation, of the financial industry in particular, an unnecessary, if not dangerous reining in of free-market capitalism.   One would think that, in a truly capitalist economy, the unfettered recklessness leading to such catastrophic loss of value and wealth should have resulted legions of CEOs and their direct minions being sacked instead of receiving record-breaking bonuses.

Effective, reformist, financial regulation in this country struggles to gain a toe hold and its implementation is relentlessly beaten back.   The remaining crumbs of social benefit available to a battered middle and lower class are now under attack under the guise of sound fiscal management.

The time is now for a dialogue to ensue in earnest to bring the Second Bill of Rights to life in the United States of America.    This blog is dedicated to fostering that dialogue.