Great Depression New Deal Ordeal example essay topic

Glastetter 1 The Great Depression was an unfortunate period of economic hard times that citizens of the United States struggled through. During this decade large numbers of people lived in poverty, desperately in need of more food, clothing, and shelter. It began in the United States with the New York Stock Market Crash of 1929 and lasted until about 1939. The consequences of the Great Depression led to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and major changes in the structure of the United States' economy brought about by his New Deal. Thus, the New Deal helped calmed the fears of the unemployed caused by the Great Depression. The New Deal that Roosevelt had promised the American people began to take shape immediately after his inauguration in March 1933.

According to Goodwin's Internet article, Roosevelt states in his inauguration, "This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive an will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance", "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting Glastetter 2 by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources".

In one hundred days, President Roosevelt pushed program after program through Congress to create jobs, provide relief, and get the economy going strong once again with very little resistance from the people. Therefore, this won the support of the American people and contributed in bringing our nation out of depression. Fear of losing jobs and unemployment caused both physical and psychological impact on the entire nation as well as anxiety among the people. According to Lee & Gupta, unemployed men felt like failures when they could not support their families and lost their status when they saw their wives and children working to the point when they were too ashamed to get relief or help from friends.

At the worst point of the Great Depression, in 1933 when Roosevelt became president, unemployment was up to sixteen million and rising and the American banking system had collapsed. As a result, one in four Americans who wanted to work was unable to find a job (Schenk). According to Davies, The Salvation Army reports that after making 300,000 calls Glastetter 3 during the highest peak of the Great Depression, they were only able to locate 111 jobs for the unemployed (2). According to the International Reform Monitor, the New Deal signals a significant shift in priorities for public expenditure, from consumption ist (indirectly productive) to measures intended to be directly producti vist (education and training), in this case on unemployment levels, wage levels, flexibility and inflationary pressures, and competitiveness generally.

On the political spectrum of the New Deal and unemployment, Lt. Populist, such as Dr. Francis Townsend favored the government in the form of welfare checks due to unemployment, assisted programs that were for the "little people" and not to the wealthy people (Davies, 53). Marxist such as the Dies Committee member Earl Browder expresses the attitude of the American communists by stating "we are the only party entitled by its program and work to designate itself as 'sons and daughters of the American Revolution' " (Leuchtenburg, 282-283). They did not play an active role in any of the administrative policies during the making of the New Deal policies since they tried to appeal to Roosevelt's policies. During the 1930's, the economic crisis worked against Glastetter 4 a renewed Feminist interest in women's rights - unemployment and poverty took precedence over any other problem. Both the 1920's and the 1930's still witnessed important changes in women's roles, determined not by politics but by economics. Needless to say, the Feminists were eagerly accepting work from corporate jobs rather than rural / urban jobs such as farming especially if they were married and their husband was unemployed or away at war since it gave them "status" and "rights" (Harrison).

Liberals, such as Roosevelt and Hopkins showed compassion for the economy, tuned in to the needs of the people in having a strong working economy and strived to make the economy a better place for the people. Libertarians, such as Hoover, were focused on keeping the American economy running therefore unemployment would not get out of hand. Their views were "as long as there is business, there are people working". Conservatives, on the other hand, felt that if there were to be any federal aid at all, it should come from the form of relief checks being handed out at intervals, which in their eyes was the cheapest way to take care of the unemployment assistance. Right populist, the congress members, during the New Deal era shared the similar views as the conservatives in wanting to change the Glastetter 5 social / political system into a more powerful, industrious system rather than issues of the unemployed people. Four important relief agencies of the New Deal seeking to aide the mass of unemployed people were the Works Progress Administration, the Civil Works Administration, the Social Security Act and the National Youth Administration.

It is through these programs that many of these able to preserve their skills that were put to good use later on in the industrial productivity which the United States achieved during World War II immediately following a decade of depression and mass unemployment (Davies, 42). The Works Progress Administration, known as WPA, was created in 1935 and headed by Hopkins, a liberal activist. According to the Encarta Encyclopedia, during the eight years of the WPA, it built or improved more than 2,500 hospitals, 5,900 school buildings, and nearly 13,000 playgrounds. It provided funds for federal theater, arts, and writers projects that improved the nation's cultural life. Most of the Works Progress Administration's money, some eleven billion dollars in all by 1943, went for short-term, make-work projects to assist the unemployed. The Works Glastetter 6 Progress Administration helped more than 3 million unemployed people.

It was later renamed the Work Projects Administration. Under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, also run by Hopkins, large amounts of money were given to the states and another program, Civil Works Administration, known as CWA, was established on November 8, 1933 for the unemployed. It was a federal operation in which the workers were on the federal payroll. Leuchtenburg states that through this program, 4,230,000 unemployed people found jobs improving / building roads, schools, playgrounds, athletic fields and airports. They also employed 50,000 teachers to keep rural schools open and teach adult education in the cities (121). The country made it through their worst winter because of the billions of dollars this program put into the sagging economy.

Needless to say, the Civil Works Administration provided a psychological and physical boost to its 4 million workers. Alarmed at how much the Civil Works Administration was costing, Roosevelt ended it as quickly as he could in fear that he was creating a permanent class of relievers whom he might never get off the government payroll (Leuchtenburg, 122). Glastetter 7 The Social Security Act of 1935 created retirement funds, unemployment insurance and welfare grants that contributed to making millions of Americans feel more secure. The unemployment insurance was established as a joint federal- state program and as an old-age pension system, which would be administered by the federal government and financed by taxes on both employers and employees (Encarta). The National Youth Administration, known as the NYA, was established to provide part-time jobs to keep millions of young people away from the lines of the unemployed. One of Hopkins's Assistants states, "The young are rotting without jobs and there are no jobs" (Leuchtenburg 129).

Needless to say, that the National Youth Administration helped to ease the restlessness of these young Americans and their overall future. Leuchtenburg declares that during the seven years that the National Youth Administration was active, it gave employment to more than six hundred thousand college students and over a half million high school students. It also aided over 2.6 million jobless youths who were not in school (129). The National Glastetter 8 Youth Administration also served as a safety control device to keep people who were too young out of the labor market. By 1939, Roosevelt had come to an end with his New Deal programs.

His programs had both short and long term effects. In the short-term perspective, the New Deal programs helped improve the lives of people suffering from the events of the depression. In response, the New Deal programs put people to work and lowered the number of unemployed people during the Great Depression. In the long run perspective, the New Deal stretched out the role of the federal government and created a number of agencies that remain in existence today in helping our economy and society members. Due to the influence of the New Deal's programs, it set an example for the federal government of the future generations to play an important role in the economic and social affairs of the nation to limit the impact of later declines and perhaps depressions (Library of Congress). In looking at this perspective, a few questions come to the minds of society: If we hadn't had the Great Depression / New Deal ordeal, what would our economy / government structure be like in the present day?

What kind of world would we be living in? Glastetter 9 Acknowledging the economic stresses in the present day concerning the stock market, it is safe to say that the stock market is declining. On a daily basis, we see that people are losing their jobs due to the decline of our economy. In comparison with the Great Depression, one can clearly see the similarities since the Great Depression originated from the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

This brings a serious question to our society members: Is the nation going into the next Great Depression? The efforts of President Roosevelt through the New Deal in establishing programs that benefit the people can be seen in our current President's actions in establishing deals that cut taxes for the people, giving tax money back to the people, and lowering interest rates for the people. President Bush's goal is to get the economy through its current regression with the stock market declining and preventing a Great Depression ordeal. Through their efforts, we can see that Presidents, Bush and Roosevelt, share the same goal of getting the economy and people going strong again.

Glastetter 10 Looking at Roosevelt's Presidency and the success of his New Deal concerning unemployment as well as insight to our present day economic problems with unemployment on the rise, the question of "What is our New Deal going to be to help our present economy and unemployment?" With all of these questions in mind, makes individuals ask themselves, "Is history repeating itself?".