Forum Post: The Rulers of the Exchange of Mankind's Goods Have Failed...
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 13, 2011, 8:40 p.m. EST by looselyhuman
(3117)
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"Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
"Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts.... Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
"True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
The money-changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit...."
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/09/rulers-exchange-mankinds-goods-have-failed
Nice. FDR for prez.
:o)
Some serious measures he talks about. Do you think we're there yet?
Maybe not all the way there, but it would be nice if we could start turning it around before we went off the cliff. We also have a harder path, because our resources are nowhere near as abundant as they were then, and there are other constraints now with regards to population, labor, markets, environment, etc that make the requirement for neverending expansion and growth just to keep even more problematic. The "green" economy is really our best bet, as are some major infrastructure projects that need to happen. The idea that unfettered market forces are just going to fix it all is insane though, and that's kind of the point.
Right, yeah agreed.
"...Recognition of that falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live..."
"..Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.."
"...And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order. There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money. And there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency...."
I dunno what's up with the text. Anyway, full speech including audio can also be found here: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstinaugural.html