How Did The New Deal Change American Society

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President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society focused on social progressive reform through federal legislative. These eras produced great achievements, but also had shortcomings. Roosevelt’s New Deal era from 1933 to 1945 was a response to the Great Depression. The first New Deal focused primarily on unemployment relief, economic recovery, and banking reform. During Roosevelt’s first one hundred days in office, “Congress enacted fifteen major bills that focused primarily on four problems: banking failures, agricultural overproduction, the business slump, and soaring unemployment” (Henretta 672). Following the successful legislative action taken during the first one hundred days the decline of the economy was halted and hope was …show more content…

Unfortunately, the Great Depression still continued which brought criticism to the New Deal. Roosevelt shifted his focus to providing federal economic security to change the American society. Two major legislative victories, the Wagner and Social Security Acts of 1935, paved the way for the second New Deal. The Wagner Act provided workers the right to create a Union, protecting them from employer’s unfair treatment. The Social Security Act created the first American welfare state, creating “three main provisions: old-age pensions for workers; a joint federal-state system of compensation for unemployed workers; and a program of payments to wid-owed mothers and the blind, deaf, and disabled” (Henretta 678)” This promise of federal security coupled with legislation regulating the stock markets, banking, and big businesses began restoring America economically from the Great Depression. Despite the overall success of the New Deal, it was not without shortcomings. The New Deal addressed major issues related to recovery and reform, but the funding for these federal programs came from increased taxes and federal budget deficit. “Excise taxes, personal income taxes, inheritance taxes, corporate income

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