Anti-TPP protests in Seattle, as then President Obama arrives for a fundraiser. Source: Backbone Campaign/Flickr. Some rights reserved.
This interview is part of the series 'Development in the Face of Global Inequalities'. You can find out more about the series, read its articles and explore the interactive roundtables by clicking here.
Before becoming the 31st President of the United States of America, Herbert Hoover, the son of a blacksmith and a self-made millionaire, concluded a successful election campaign with a speech on what he termed ‘rugged individualism’. It hailed entrepreneurship and the initiative of the individual, and warned of paternalism, state socialism and the domination of social groups. It was very much emblematic of the American way of thinking; a way of thinking that over the course of several centuries would position the US as the global focal point for those seeking their own maximum self-fulfilment in life.
