It is our duty now

"As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944 State of the Union speech

I watched Capitalism: A Love Story, the newest documentary from Michael Moore, last night and it irritated me.  It ticked me off to see how much influence people made of money have over how our country runs and, as it "trickles down" on us, how their greed affects the lives of the worker bees.  The first few minutes where our society is compared to the way Ancient Rome was before its demise was frightening.  The rest of the film doesn't make you feel much better. 

Anyway, the film features a filmed portion of FDR's 1944 State of the Union speech where he outlines a Second Bill of Rights he had intended to push forward after World War II.  He died shortly before the end of the war and the topic was not recovered.  I feel this is a travesty (along the lines of the cancellation of FireFly albeit much more sad).  A great concept that was apparently never meant to be...in the United States. 

The ideas in FDR's Second Bill of Rights had been written into the constitution of many of the countries rebuilt after WWII (as described in Capitalism).  The citizens of these countries enjoy better workers rights including mandatory paid leave and fewer hours worked than those in this country.  Why we work ourselves to death just so we can eek out a living while duncebags like Paris Hilton do nothing but waste oxygen and convert food to feces, I have no idea.  All I know is that I've made it a point to try and locate products that are "Made in the USA" anywhere in stores now (food doesn't count).  It's kinda like Where's Waldo but Waldo's mostly Asian...