Socratic Seminar: The Great Depression and New Deal
1. To what extent did the policies of the booming 1920s contribute to the depression?
Economic policies permitted for imbalanced circulation of wealth, which directed to an insecure economy
Industries were more preferred than agriculture by the federal government
Government sustained sustainable affiliations with farmers because they could get produce with a low price and trade it with foreign nations in demand of food during WWI
Revenue Tax Cut of 1926 reduced federal income, which increased tax cuts, developing in an economic hardship for the government
All resulted in an increase of manufacturing output (over production)
Prominently inadequate dispersal of wealth throughout the 1920s & broad stock market speculation
Money was dispersed with the rich & middle class, between industry & agriculture within the U.S
Credit was also a policy that contributed to the depression. People were spending beyond and they needed to, and above to sustain their necessities. Companies were giving more credit limits than required because people would spend the money if they had it
The United States government put significant tariffs on imports, producing made in American goods. When WWI hit, European nations suffered due to the large amount of destruction done. This resulted in the US choosing of putting Europe down which affected the United States or trading with Europe which also affected the United States
2. Of FDR’s 3 goals of the New Deal, Relief, Recovery, and Reform, which one was most fully realized?
Relief was most fully realized
Relief programs such as the PWA, the CWA, CCC, and WPA, were proposed to stipulate relief by employing as many citizens as possible
Rel...
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...ief, recovery and reform eased the stabilization the lives of American people
Protected the rights of labor unions, alleviating the banking system, constructed low income housing units and regulated financial stock markets
As Roosevelt struggled to rebuild the American infrastructure, he used Americans to build them, creating jobs! Made in America!
Emergency Relief Act monitored banks for insured deposits which present day, each bank is required to have a FDIC permit
Government agencies provided citizens with programs such as the SEC, Social Security, FDIC and FERA that made sure each citizen was assured aid during an catastrophic event
Crafted employment for industrial workers by starting broad work schemes of public benefit
Sparked the economy to start rebuilding the loss and have an efficient recovery, instead of dreading the money that has been lost
This in turn helped create jobs and encourage farmers to either plant crops or not to plant crops. Even though farmers received subsidies from the government, so much was produced that there became a huge surplus. This led to major trade with foreign countries and transformed American society and government.
World War II was an exceptional war for the United States. The United States emerged from the war as a world superpower and protector of all other nations. There were many reasons why the United States entered World War II, however President Franklin Roosevelt was in some way directly connected to every reason. Roosevelt wanted to enter World War II as soon as it started for political and economic needs. However, the American people did not want to enter in another war, such as World War I, that costs so many lives and money. Therefore, Roosevelt schemed a plan to enter the United States into World War II that would change the minds of the American people, including the direct aiding of Great Britain, the German bombing of a United States warship, and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
But this was a hard task. And in less than months ,weeks, days or hours, many Americans were broke. This trouble caused hunger ,crop prices to lower, and little to no education for students. It also created dust ,new laws ,working with what you had, and lots of terror across the US. Many lost their jobs and tried to look for work. But it was very scarce to find. In 1933 the lowest unemployment rate was recorded at 15%.
When he took office, 'the nation was in the fourth year of a disastrous economic crisis' and 'a quarter of the labor force was out of work [and] the banks had been closed in thirty-eight states' (Greenstein 16). In order to remedy these problems and restore trust in the government, FDR enacted the New Deal in the Hundred Days legislation. Many of the programs created in the legislation are still around today in some form, continuing to show FDR's influence on the modern presidency. Such programs as the Works Progress Administration and The Tennessee Valley Authority helped poor Americans unable to get jobs or afford the luxury of electricity. These programs were some of the major reasons FDR was so popular during his terms in office. Also created was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured the money in banks. This helped because then in the case of another bank crisis, people's money would not be lost. The FDIC was another reason, along with FDR's rhetoric, that people began to trust the banks and government again. One major policy FDR began was social security, which is still around today. When creating this idea of social security, it is clear he meant it to help the people, but also that he meant it to be permanent. FDR wanted, and received, a lasting effect on the government. By designing and implementing so many new programs and policies to help Americans, FDR showed what
Roosevelt became the U.S. president in 1932; he made an attempt to stop the Great Depression by The New Deal, which was based on the idea that the government’s money can save the economy. The New Deal gave jobs for people in governmental projects and also saved the banks from the chaos. However, the new deal didn’t overcome the unemployment issue and the jobs given to the people were only for a short period of time. Also, most of the government’s project created lost much more money than it gained. To be specific, Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was based on building dams and hydroelectric power, this employed up to 8.5 million Americans; however, the projected costed a huge amount of money and the people were unemployed after the work was done. Franklin’s attempt to end the great depression wasn’t as effective as World War II’s boom in industry and
President Roosevelt initiated the only program that could pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal got the country through one of the worst financial catastrophe the U.S. has ever been through. Diggerhistory.info biography on FDR states,” In March 13 million people were unemployed… In his first “Hundred Days”, he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and those in danger of losing their farms and homes”(Digger History Biography 1). Roosevelt’s first hundred days brought relief to the unemployed. He opened the AAA (Agriculture Adjustment Administration) and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.). The administration employed many young men in need of jobs all around the country. Roosevelt knew that the economy’s biggest problem was the widespread unemployment. Because of Roosevelt’s many acts and agencies, lots of young men and women around the country were getting jobs so the economy was healing. According to Roosevelt’s biography from the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, “Another Flurry of New Deal Legislation followed in 1935, including the WPA (Work Projects Admi...
The United States, at the time of World War II, was facing an economic depression which concerned the American public and President Roosevelt because they knew that America’s involvement with the war was inevitable. Most resources state that “the United States entered World War II largely unprepared” (America and Word War II 610). However, due to the fact that while preparing for the war there was an increase in economic growth, African Americans and women became more involved in industry and the military, and President Roosevelt incorporated several acts and embargos that encouraged Americans to produce more supplies as well as permitted Britain and France to purchase goods from the United States, it can be argued that America was in fact prepared for its entry into World War II. The external threads of continuity, such as economic, social, political, and geographic factors, had a greater impact on the United States preparedness for war, which resulted in the overall success of the Allied Powers.
The New Deal was a set of acts that effectively gave Americans a new sense of hope after the Great Depression. The New Deal advocated for women’s rights, worked towards ending discrimination in the workplace, offered various jobs to African Americans, and employed millions through new relief programs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), made it his duty to ensure that something was being done. This helped restore the public's confidence and showed that relief was possible. The New Deal helped serve American’s interest, specifically helping women, african american, and the unemployed and proved to them that something was being done to help them.
In order to protect people’s benefits and provide a easeful life to people, Roosevelt started the New Deal followed his first inaugural address. When FDR gave his campaign speech at M...
As President Roosevelt took his inaugural oath, he took on an unemployment rate to this day the highest in American history. He felt he needed to get the heart pumping by creating jobs. He started with perhaps one of the most popular programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC (1933-1942) provided work for young men to perform unskilled jobs in rural areas. This law provided employment in fresh-air government camps for about 3 million uniformed young men, many of whom might otherwise have been driven into criminal habits (830, Kennedy). Their jobs included the following: reforestation, firefighting, flood control, and swamp drainage. The recruits were required to help their parents by sending home most of their pay (830, Kennedy). Thoug...
... prevent the national crises that plagued the country. Some of the presidents took affirmative action like Truman, while presidents like Lincoln took a more negative approach to the national crisis. All three presidents tested the limits of their constitutional authority in order to help to nation recover. Some of their proposals, like the Emergency Banking Bill passed Congress, and some did not. In the end, all three presidents resolved the national crisis, and the nation resumed its normal course of events.
Roosevelt took office in 1933, he single handedly put together what was known as the New Deal. With the New Deal, the federal government bailed out the American people who had lost so much because of the depression that started in 1929. The New Deal put money back into the economy and put Americans back to work. If Roosevelt had not of had the federal government bail out the American people, it would’ve been the demise of the United States. The federal government helped pay for the programs of the new deal and some of these programs are still enacted today. For example, Social Security helping seniors with their retirement because they’re too old to work but still need to make a
Roosevelt had finally made it happen. He helped out many people, some by even letting men From aged 17 to 23 volunteer to go camp in the forests and dig ditches, built places, and plated trees. They would earn 30 dollars a Month and two thirds of that would be sent home to there families. Also more then 8.5 million people volunteered to build bridges, roads, buildings, parks, and even airports!
As Franklin D. Roosevelt commented: "But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings." The New Deal was a plan that was consecrated during the mid-20th Century by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to ordain financial reform, direct relief and economic provision. These dispositions were able to constitute our modern foundation of our true economic stability and financial reformation, despite our nation’s current financial status due to our later United States presidents. The New Deal has been depicted as a vital approach to the nation’s economic crisis of the 1930's. Roosevelt postulated that this conceptional volition would be able to mediatize the nation from depression to a pecuniary state of tranquility. The reform that included such ideas set to address the struggles of ethnic minorities, liberal ideas and renowned labor unions caused a bitter controversy between Republicans and Democrats that lasted from 1938 to 1964. Hence, at the birth of The New Deal, the Supreme Court ruled in Wickard V. Filburn that the Commerce Clause met the standard for majority of federal regulations to allow The New Deal as “constitutional”. Those three main components of The New Deal, formally known as relief, reform and recovery; were intended to create a political alignment which encompassed new empowered labor unions, industrialization and new liberal ideas.
The US government’s role in the Great Depression has been very controversy. Different hypothesizes argued differently on the causes of the Great depression and whether the New Deal introduced by the government and President Roosevelt helped United States got out of the depression. I would argue that even though not the only factor, the US government did lead the country into the Great Depression and the New Deal actually delayed the recovery process. I will discuss five different factors (stock market crash, bank failure, tariff and tax cut, consumer spending and agriculture) that are commonly accepted to cause the depression and how the government linked to them. Furthermore, I will try to show how the government prolonged the depression in the United States by introducing the New Deal.