Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
We do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal shares on stated occasions. We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945, 32nd President of the United States (Democrat, NY), State of the Union Address, 1935
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At the time of this quotation, the nation had gone through more than 3 decades of enormous increase in prosperity for the wealthy, and modest gains for the highly skilled, technically trained workers. However, correcting for inflation, average salaries did not increase at all. The middle class was particularly hard hit. Only 20 percent of the population benefitted from the growth at all; however, the 1 percent had rarely prospered more. Kenworthy’s principle did not apply for this period of American history.
He was concerned that if steps were taken to protect the environment and they slowed or shrank economic growth, the burden would fall disproportionately on the poor.
It has been the blue collar worker who has borne the economic brunt of globalization in the industrial democracies. It was their jobs who moved off shore, their wages that were under pressure from low wage workers in emerging nations.
In modern America, there are two political views of this notion. The one held by a small majority of the population is Trenchard’s quotation taken literally. Their view is that there if the is no way to maintain liberty if there is too wide a gap between the rich and the rest of the population. The second variant, held by many conservatives limits the equality to equality of opportunity. They are loathe to take any position that says that any gap between the rich and the remainder of the citizens might be too large. They would particularly disagree with the first sentence of another Trenchard quotation, {627024}.
Excesses that CEOs and other corporate executives were getting for remuneration became an issue of political controversy in the beginning of the 2nd Milleneum. However, this quotation shows that this was not a new problem and has been considered for a long time.
The debate over income inequality generally ranges between the two extremes of Christie’s hypothetical equal, mediocre salary to the extreme wealth of the 1% controlling most of the wealth. However , where America was moving in its most general affluent times was not towards equal compensation, but to a large range of remuneration with the low end and middle constantly increasing over time and the high end a reasonable multiple of the low end. However, the breakdown came in the last decades of the 20th century and the early 21st century when the low end did not increase (discounting for inflation) in 40 years, nor did the middle, while the high end increased enormously. So the nation had 40 years of growth without the lower or middle classes benefitting much and all the benefit going to the wealthy and most of that to the very wealthy. Thus the instinct was to tax the wealthy more heavily and spending the money to increase opportunity for the lower and middle classes. However, the political battle was waged over the taxing issue and not on what could be done to have the poor and the middle class obtain a larger proportion of the growth and a smaller percentage of the setbacks.
He was referring to the success of the Clinton Administration.
Actually originated by William Jennings Bryan in a 1900 campaign speech. See {640984} . The slogan became the name and first line of a poem and also a song. See {609937}
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.
