whitehouse | And that is a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward
mobility that has jeopardized middle-class America’s basic bargain --
that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead.
I believe this is the defining challenge of our time: Making sure our
economy works for every working American. It’s why I ran for President.
It was at the center of last year’s campaign. It drives everything I
do in this office. And I know I’ve raised this issue before, and some
will ask why I raise the issue again right now. I do it because the
outcomes of the debates we’re having right now -- whether it’s health
care, or the budget, or reforming our housing and financial systems --
all these things will have real, practical implications for every
American. And I am convinced that the decisions we make on these issues
over the next few years will determine whether or not our children will
grow up in an America where opportunity is real.
Now, the premise that we’re all created equal is the opening line in
the American story. And while we don’t promise equal outcomes, we have
strived to deliver equal opportunity -- the idea that success doesn’t
depend on being born into wealth or privilege, it depends on effort and
merit. And with every chapter we’ve added to that story, we’ve worked
hard to put those words into practice.
It was Abraham Lincoln, a self-described “poor man’s son,” who started a
system of land grant colleges all over this country so that any poor
man’s son could go learn something new.
When farms gave way to factories, a rich man’s son named Teddy
Roosevelt fought for an eight-hour workday, protections for workers, and
busted monopolies that kept prices high and wages low.
When millions lived in poverty, FDR fought for Social Security, and insurance for the unemployed, and a minimum wage.
When millions died without health insurance, LBJ fought for Medicare and Medicaid.
Together, we forged a New Deal, declared a War on Poverty in a great
society. We built a ladder of opportunity to climb, and stretched out a
safety net beneath so that if we fell, it wouldn’t be too far, and we
could bounce back. And as a result, America built the largest middle
class the world has ever known. And for the three decades after World
War II, it was the engine of our prosperity.
Now, we can’t look at the past through rose-colored glasses. The
economy didn’t always work for everyone. Racial discrimination locked
millions out of poverty -- or out of opportunity. Women were too often
confined to a handful of often poorly paid professions. And it was only
through painstaking struggle that more women, and minorities, and
Americans with disabilities began to win the right to more fairly and
fully participate in the economy. Fist tap Dale.
