Reclaiming the Pursuit of Happiness
Let’s Celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by Ending U.S. Poverty
This piece originally appeared on Fran Quigley’s Substack We Can Do Better: Ending Poverty in Our Time on July 2, 2026.
In this week’s episode of We Can Do Better, we are doing something different from our usual practice of welcoming an outside guest. For the week of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we are talking about an article Fran recently published on the website Common Dreams: Reclaiming the Pursuit of Happiness: Let’s Celebrate the Declaration’s 250th by Ending Poverty
To lead our conversation, we pulled out from behind the scenes our podcast’s guru and producer Jack Quigley. Jack is a journalist and writer, now Chief Marketing Officer for 14 Regional Construction Trade Magazines. Jack takes over the questioning and asks Fran about his article, including:
The historical evidence showing that, by promising that our new government would fulfill “the pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right, the founders meant a government guarantee of housing, healthcare, and meeting critical needs;
How protecting civil rights like voting, free speech, etc. are completely dependent on fulfilling economic rights to housing, healthcare, etc.;
Why the record shows that the U.S. people, now and throughout history, are nowhere near as hostile to guaranteeing economic rights to housing, healthcare, etc. as we have been led to believe;
Why the U.S. ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights could solve our poverty crisis.
You can listen to the podcast here:
