 Freedom From Want had previously been less entwined in the standard liberalism philosophies of the western world than the other three freedoms ( speech , fear , and religion ) ; this freedom added economic liberty as a societal aspiration . In his essay , Bulosan treats negative liberties as positive liberties by suggesting that Americans be " given equal opportunity to serve themselves and each other according to their needs and abilities " , an echo of Karl Marx 's " from each according to his abilities , to each according to his needs " . In the final paragraph of the essay , the phrase " The America we hope to see is not merely a physical but also a spiritual and intellectual world " describes an egalitarian America . In a voice likened to Steinbeck 's in works such as The Grapes of Wrath , Bulosan 's essay spoke up for those who struggled to survive in the capitalist democracy and was regarded as " haunting and sharp " against the backdrop of Rockwell 's feast of plenty . It proposed that while citizens had obligations to the state , the state had an obligation to provide a basic level of subsistence . Unlike Roosevelt , Bulosan presented the case that the New Deal had not already granted freedom from want as it did not guarantee Americans the essentials of life . 
