The Social Security program is a pact between workers and their employers that they will contribute to a common fund to ensure that those who are no longer part of the work force will have a basic income on which to live. It represents our commitment as a society to the belief that workers should not live in dread that a disability, death, or old age could leave them or their families destitute.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of Social Security as a collective agreement to support workers and their families in times of need.
Jimmy Carter highlights the Social Security program as a fundamental social contract between workers and employers, ensuring financial stability for individuals who can no longer work due to disability, death, or old age. This program reflects a societal commitment to preventing despair and poverty among the workforce and their families, illustrating a collective responsibility to support one another in challenging times.
In practice
In a speech advocating for workers' rights, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of social safety nets.
Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world - water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution - if we tackle them with courage and foresight.
The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine.
I would say the biggest handicap we have right now is some nutcases in our country that don't believe in global warming. I think they are going to change their position because of pressure from individuals, because the evidence of the ravages of global warming is already there.
If I were president, I'd be very glad to see the Palestinians have a nation recognized by the United Nations. There's no downside to it.
My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.
Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings.
The thing that I would say you get the most hate about on social media, in my experience, is if you tweet anything about women's rights or feminism. It blows my mind. But it's the thought of not being a feminist that actually blows my mind.
Talk to families in poverty and ask them what they need, instead of prescribing it for them. Ask what the barriers are. Ask what would help. And then deliver it.
By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.
The gap between rich and poor is widening dramatically. There's a hangar at the Cairo airport for private jets, billionaires are on the Forbes list, and Egypt's annual per-capita income is two thousand dollars. How can you sustain that?
I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.
Basic income is not a utopia, it's a practical business plan for the next step of the human journey.
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