Raised in
unrivalled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is still the world's
strongest, but is weakened by business failures, stagnant wages,
increasing inequality, and deep divisions among *our own* people.
When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold,
news travelled slowly across the land by horseback, and across the ocean
by boat. Now the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast
instantaneously to billions around the world. Communications and
commerce are global. Investment is mobile. Technology is almost
magical, and ambition for a better life is now universal.
We earn our livelihood in America today in peaceful competition with
people all across the Earth. Profound and powerful forces are shaking
and remaking our world, and the *urgent* question of our time is whether
we can make change our friend and not our enemy. This new world has
already enriched the lives of *millions* of Americans who are able to
compete and win in it. But when most people are working harder for
less, when others cannot work at all, when the cost of health care
devastates families and threatens to bankrupt our enterprises, great and
small; when the fear of crime robs law abiding citizens of their
freedom; and when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the
lives we are calling them to lead, we have not made change our friend.
We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we have
not done so.
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