Historic Addresses

Fredrick D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address speech back in 1933 connects with the events happening in our economy today. Many of the economical issues that he mentions back then still occur today, I see a pattern with his proposed solutions with the Barrack Obama campaign. The situation with their economic crisis as well as the one that we are in now have their points and ideas on how to fix the economy.

“Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income” -FDR
There were economic issues on taxes and the stock market crashes, the government were faced with irrational decisions as well as we have faced today. An example would be the $700 billion bailout plan by President Bush. An article in the Naples Daily news stated that
“The plan would enable the government to buy bad mortgages and other troubled assets held by endangered banks and financial institutions…If the plan works, it should help lift a major weight off the sputtering economy.”
The United States government had taken measures to ensure the prevention of a financial calamity. The stock market goes down so does the value of money causing the financial crisis that we suffer today. As FDR stated “Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money,” it was as if he was looking into the future.Headline news:
“Bush team urges Congress to pass $700 billion bailout for Wall Street.”


As FDR stated
“the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; 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.”
This statement clearly connects with today’s job crisis; workers are losing their jobs due to budget cuts thus having to find new jobs and having to overcome obstacles such as finding health care, paying for college, as well as paying for mortgages, a New York Times article says

“That cutback…is a prime example of how far the pain of anemic state treasuries has spread -- and not only in Nebraska, a state where almost 25,000 poor mothers have lost health care and where state college tuition has been raised 20 percent over two years.”
We are truly in an economic crisis, with stock markets falling, the amount of the dollar decreasing, budget cuts, no jobs, and tuition for college goes up? We are entering another depression.

On a different note FDR stated that “Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it.” With all of our oil usage in America we might be able to make another planet with oceans of oil. The U.S, in 2007, used about 20 million barrels of oil per day, we were on top of the list and in second was China using only 7 million barrels per day, less than half of what we used. Though oil is a necessity for our technology today the usage of oil increased in the last few year; the amount of oil raises, the amount of Carbon Dioxide (Co2) emissions rise as well. The most recent statics from NationMaster show that the United States emitted almost 6 million thousand metric tons of Co2. We cause the most pollution in the world.

“Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for.” –said FDR.
They may have had much to be thankful for but we sure know that we don’t. The temperature of the earth is drastically rising, causing glaciers and ice caps to melt away causing certain animals to be endangered as well as raising sea levels. There’s not much to be thankful for right now other than Bush not being into office.

This brings me to my conclusion and my final point Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that
“The people of the United States have not failed. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.”
The situation with the economic crisis back then reminds me of what crisis we have now and how the United States voted a new president to lead us out of this depression. I feel as if this was a warning to us and FDR actually relates a lot to Barrack Obama as taking the Presidency while in an economical crisis. The situation is similar and a new leader gives us hope as FDR did to the people back then. The president gives us HOPE.
“That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood…Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. ..All this we can do. All this we will do.” - said Barrack Obama





Sources:
Egan, Timothy. "States, Facing Budget Shortfalls, Cut the Major and the Mundane ." The New York Times 21 Apr. 2003. 22 Jan. 2009 .
Franklin D. Roosevelt Inaugural Address speech, March 4, 1933
"Bush team urges Congress to pass $700 billion bailout for Wall Street." Naples Daily News 23 Sep. 2008. 22 Jan. 2009 .
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_co2_emi-environment-co2-emissions
http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption&date=2007
Barrack Obama Inaugural Speech, 2009