You have recently spoken of a duty to work forty hours a week, yet you said nothing about a right to work those hours. Is there a right to work corresponding to the duty to work?
I think unemployed persons are by definition those who are seeking employment. There are many unemployed persons who would gladly work, yet the system you have sworn to uphold and defend provides no right to a job if a job cannot be obtained by means of that system. It is a system falling short of full employment because it is grounded in the immoral doctrine that there must always be many poor people in order for others to prosper, that there must be an impoverished pool of desperately unemployed people serving to keep wages down because they will do anything for a dollar. The people who control that system abhor any viable alternative to it such as national workshops initially capitalized by the government. They worry about make-work projects; however, over and above the bare necessities of life, the bulk of our economy is make-work; much work is being done simply because many human beings love to be doing something, so why should so many willing people be excluded? In any case, big business does not really want the competition they publicly extol while working overtime to get rid of it. Ironically, they are even opposed to competition from the prison labor pool which their perverse policies serve to overflow.
Mr. President, human resources are literally being thrown away under your nose. When a person may not have his subsistence although he is willing to produce it, what good is your government to him? The banner above it has no breeze to fulfill its promises, hence it withers on the pole. With the dignity of labor denied him and the selfish outcry against welfare, he may find some dignity in stealing or rioting for bread rather than begging for it.
Some political philosophers have said that every person has a natural right to a living even if he must steal and kill to get it. Look at the example your wealthy class provides to the less well off whom they exploit and steal from. The widely publicized reports that the highest offices are the selfish resorts of wealthy thieves, credentialed liars, drugs for arms traders, and even mass murderers is not lost on those who do not have their bare subsistence under a government which, as you know so well, is obviously for sale to the highest bidders. Where are the unemployed to turn to in self-defense except to their natural right to seize whatever they can by means no longer illegal because, in nature, there is no crime in self-defense? Thus each works in his own little way to overthrow the government you have sworn to uphold and defend.
But perhaps I am mistaken, Mr. President. Perhaps you are not only an advocate of the duty to work forty hours, but are also an advocate of the right to work forty hours a week; I hope so, because if you are not, I think that would make you a hypocrite. There must be some program whereby, if no job can be found by an unemployed person within the primary system, he may have a productive position elsewhere, a position from whence he may make his contributions to society instead of working its ruin. I know you are very busy, but I hope you may find time to let me know where he might apply for that position.
Very truly yours,