Wednesday 8 August 2012

FDR's 1944 State of the Union Address, better known as the Second or Economic Bill of Rights

In 1944, for his state of the union address, president Franklin D. Roosevelt presented a social and economic program which would have expanded on the original bill of rights. 

Most of it was a radio address, as he had the flu, but part of it was filmed (the footage was found recently). Similar programs are found in modern constitutions, and part of it would inspire the universal bill of rights.

Obviously, it didn't pass. FDR would die barely a year later, and this would die with him. Their inspiration can be found in the writings of enlightenment philosophers, already, but also in early socialist thought, up to the current day.

Read the speech here

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