New Deal Dbq

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Upton Sinclair once said, “The remedy [for the Great Depression] is to give the workers access to the means of production, and let them produce themselves, not for others,...the American way.” In the Great Depression, 13 million people were jobless, the unemployment rate ascended to 25%, and more than 2 million people were homeless. With no income, people were not able to provide for their families,eventually leading up to the creation of soup kitchens and Hoover-based resources. As parents reluctantly abandoned their children and as people searched desperately for any kinds of jobs, the whole nation had their eyes peeled and wide open for a new leader who would step up and make America great again. Similar to Sinclair, President Roosevelt’s …show more content…

Seeing this, Roosevelt aggressively fired back by initiating several programs to fight the troubles that derived from the first New Deal, which included labor and government aid issues. The Social Security Act, perhaps the most important and well known program, was passed to provide benefits and insurance for people regardless of whether they were employed or not. Moreover, the Works Progress Administration hired about 8.5 million people, who built 650,000 miles of roads, 75,000 bridges, and 125,000 buildings. As more people received jobs, the Fair Labor Standards Act was ratified and set minimum wages, maximum work hours, and the minimum age to work. Last, to support the economy, the Undistributed Profits Tax ordered businesses to fairly distribute profits rather than saving or investing. Although to this day many conclude that the New Deal did not fully end the Depression, the programs provided relief to Americans with employment, housing, banking, and the environment. In addition, the New Deal solved another problem-the problem of restoring faith in the

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