Progressivism And Conservativism In The New Deal

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What are contrasting perspectives of actions? Robert Collier describes opposing views as “One might as well try to ride two horse moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory set of desires.” These actions that America takes to form a better nation, since the reconstruction era until present day, results in two different reactions: one against and the other one in support. For example opposing views appear in the New Deal. The New Deal meant to help Americans during the Great Depression had supporters as well as opponents. Another example of contrasting thinking in America was progressivism and conservativism. Progressives believed in the idea that the government should be part of all …show more content…

One act in the New Deal that caused much uproar was the Agricultural Adjustment Act or the AAA. The AAA was aimed to increase the price of crops by paying farmers money to limit the growth of their plant and to kill excess livestock. Two competing visions are evident since on one hand by increasing the demand for crops and livestock, the prices will increase resulting in farmers to suffice themselves, but on the other hand there were people without food who waited in lines to obtain this necessity for life. By increasing the prices for food, the people who needed this food were left to …show more content…

The introduction of the Glass-Steagall Act resulted in banks to separate either into commercial banks or investment banks. A commercial bank is a bank that offers it service to the general public, whereas an investment bank is a bank that purchases shares to resell them to investors. Prior to the Glass-Steagall Act many banks would be both a commercial bank and an investment bank. Furthermore, banks at the time would take risks with the people’s money which ultimately resulted in the banks to crash. By instating the Glass-Steagall Act, risks regarding the people’s money were reduced. In the Glass-Steagall two different views become more noticeable. One is a progressive belief, since by implementing the Glass-Steagall act the government has greater regulation than before. However, conservative beliefs also formed due to the Glass-Steagall Act. Conservatives had repealed and blocked the reinstatement of the act. Many attribute the Glass-Steagall Act the primary reason to the recession in 2008. There is a progressive belief in that the Glass-Steagall act resulted in better management of the people’s money, but there are also conservative beliefs expressed through its blockade of renewal. The attempt to not renew the act shows that there are also people who attempt to have a more deregulated government and hence being conservative. Through these two different actions there is a

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