Nothing to Fear?

By James G. Wiles

It was in his March 1933* inaugural address that the newly sworn in 32nd president of the United States uttered historic words which seem certain to be echoed by the new president who will be sworn in on January 20, 2013. "Values," Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "have sunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side ... and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return...Our greatest primary task is to put people to work." As the elisions in that quote suggest, there are very important differences between 1933 and 2011. Most significantly, there was no social safety net: no unemployment insurance, no social security, no Medicare, and no Medicaid. Unemployment bit more deeply, too, in a world with few.... (Read Full Article)