The Great Depression: The New Deal And Social Security

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After the great depression hit America’s economy in 1929, there was no type of safe guard to help persons during this economic recession. Many Americans lost all their savings, jobs and homes because they were no longer able to afford it. Companies were not able to afford as many works as they had as there was a drastic decrease in consumer spending. To try to combat the depression the government implemented the social security act on August 14, 1935. This act signed by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was created to battle hardships being faced by Americans such as poverty. This essay shall examine the programs that took place in the first new deal and Social Security tell us about the set of policies and programs called the New Deal, how …show more content…

According history.com “The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world.” So to combat any future depressions the first new deal was created. An advertisement which appeared in the literary digest magazine stated, “They want jobs. They’re eager to work. But there aren’t enough jobs to go ‘round.” This showed that even though the great depression caused a vast increase in unemployment there were still persons who had jobs, created jobs and campaigned for Americans to help those who didn’t. Franklin Roosevelt created many programs to include a four day bank holiday . This was created to stop Americans for taking out money from the banks and giving the banks a chance to get themselves together. Some other programs included in the new deal were the glass Steagall act which stopped commercial banks from investing in businesses. With the glass Steagall act came the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) which gave banks insurance for members’ savings and checking deposits in the case of the bank falls into a depression or another depression happens. The agricultural adjustment act was also a program implemented by the new deal. This was used to keep famers farming as the government would buy the excess surplus of goods from the farmers and burn it yet paying the farmers the full price for their goods. This program was later criticized and stopped. Other programs included, the home owners’ loan act, Works Progress Administration (WPA) which provided jobs to persons such as actors and artist. Yet, with all these programs implemented the depression continued. This gave rise to the second new deal. One of the safe guards that was created and still exist today was the social security act. This was created to offer pensions to retired works and

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