Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Forum

A call to action: A new New Deal

Our country is facing an economic crisis of proportions unmatched since the Great Depression. The middle class is bearing the greatest burden of this crisis and the housing meltdown and the resulting financial downturn is making it increasingly difficult for the majority of Americans to get the credit they have come to depend on. As a Northwestern undergrad, you might not be taking out a mortgage anytime soon, but you or a friend of yours has probably taken out a loan in order to attend this university - and the credit crunch has already extended to college loans. At least one million students next year will not receive their college loans as a result of the financial meltdown.

NU students should care about what our economy has become because it is changing the very definition of what it means to be an American. Economic risk for the average household has never been higher, and wages are deteriorating for the majority of Americans, all while the income of the wealthiest few continues to grow at astonishing rates. For the first time in more than half a century, a child born in this year will on average neither live longer nor more prosperously than his or her parents. In short, the foundation of the American dream - upward mobility - has become increasingly untenable.

Whatever your political leanings, you can agree that this country was founded on the principle of equality of opportunity. We seek to restore that equality through innovative policies and reforms that will mitigate the effects of an increasingly uneven playing field, and to rebuild the American Dream. This is not the first time our country has faced such a crisis, nor is it the first time that a series of bold, unprecedented reforms have restored the motivation and opportunity necessary for prosperity. This was the case with the New Deal, and it can be true again today, with a New New Deal.

The burden of engendering a New New Deal falls squarely on the shoulders of our generation. Consider this a call to action. We, the authors of this letter, are members of the Roosevelt Institution, a non-partisan, non-profit network of student think tanks on over 70 campuses across the country. The Roosevelt Institution has successfully connected dozens of student-written policy proposals to policymakers, many of which have been implemented at the local, state, and national levels. We want you to join us.

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