you and i, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. why then should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
we must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. and let there be no misunderstanding -- we’re going to begin to act beginning today. the economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. they will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. they will go away because we as americans have the capacity now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. from time to time we’ve
been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. but if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?
all of us together -- in and out of government -- must bear the burden. the solutions we seek must be equitable with no one group singled out to pay a higher price. we hear much of special interest groups. well our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. it knows no sectional boundaries, or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. it is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we’re sick -- professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. they are, in s