In general, most Americans see the New Deal as one of the most important events in American history. Passed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the New Deal was a response to the Great Depression, aiming to provide relief, reform, and recovery for the American people. While the New Deal was successful in some areas, it also had some drawbacks. This essay will explain how the New Deal was both good and bad.
The New Deal was successful in providing relief to millions of Americans who were suffering from the Great Depression. Programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put unemployed Americans to work in national parks and forests, while the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided aid to the poor and elderly. The Social Security Act provided a safety net for the
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The Glass-Steagall Act created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which ensured bank deposits up to $2500. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also created to regulate stock market practices.
The New Deal was also successful in promoting recovery from the Great Depression. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided work for millions of Americans through public works projects. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) brought electricity to millions of people in the rural South and the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) provided relief for homeowners facing foreclosure.
Despite its successes, the New Deal had some drawbacks. One of the main criticisms of the New Deal was that it was not effective enough in providing relief to the unemployed and poverty-stricken. Critics argued that the programs, while providing some aid, did not go far enough in providing long-term solutions to the problems of unemployment and
The New Deal included programs that would help average citizens find relief and provide recovery from the dire economic situation, helped farmers recover from foreclosures produce more crops and reduce the prices of crops for citizens and consequently expanded the role of gov’t because more people depended more on their gov’t in a time of need. The Great Depression started after the stock market crash of 1929, shortly thereafter companies started firing millions of workers (Document J) to save money because CEO’s are always greedy and always want to keep as much money as possible for themselves. FDR’s response to mass unemployment was to create agencies like the TVA (Document I) which employed unemployed workers in Tennessee for public projects such as bridges, roads, dams, parks etc. Anything that benefited the public was built so that people had jobs and were able to bring the economy out the depression.
The First New Deal : Focused create jobs. It created public works projects such as schools, roads, hospitals and dams. At this time, it provide some works that allowed the federal government to build dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley, coupled with agricultural and industrial planning, to generate and sell the power, and to engage in area development. The TVA was given an assignment to improve the economic and social circumstances of the people living in the river basin for Tennessee Valley. The Second New Deal focused on improve welfare services.
This also increased the number of people that trust banks to hold their money. When banks failed, the FDIC guaranteed all Americans up to $250, 000 of their savings if lost to prevent future banking "panics". Another example of FDR's reform programs was the SEC, or better known as the Securities and Commissions. The SEC was structured to regulate Wall Street and the stock market exchange. This agency was created to prevent fraud and abuse in the stock markets by banks and corporations.
Before the New Deal farming as an industry was massively struggling facing low prices, banks reclaiming land and soil erosion and flooding. The New Deal brough the AAA which paid farmers to plough up ten million acres and kill six million piglets with the FCA making loans to a fifth of all farmers. This far reaching and significant change led to farmers income doubling between 1933 and 1939. Although this was hugely significant for the farmers it led to workers and sharecroppers being evicted due to lack of work to do and replacement with machinery. Overall, the New Deal was significant and far reaching to an extent as it fixed the prices in the farming industry and improved lives for all farmers however this was tainted by the harming of those who worked on the fields
(source B) Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was successful mostly because it helped the unemployed and the Social Security Act. These acts were the most successful because they made a big impact on the society.
The New Deal was a good deal because with the New Deal President Roosevelt established many new organizations whose sole purpose was creating jobs for the unemployed. According to the source “Outlining the New Deal Program”, Roosevelt's farm's was, “[to give] opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed, especially the young men who have dependents, to go into the forestry and flood prevention work. ”(9). Roosevelt wanted to create jobs that wouldn’t just help the citizens but believed that the unemployed could be given jobs related to the improvement of the American society.
Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal to help many people that were affected by the depression that started in October 1929. The Wall Street crash in 1929 would be the crash that would cause a depression in America and that was the economic depression. After the depression that Wall Street market crashed. 12 million people were put out of work, which also caused 20,000 companies to go bankrupt. Many people were depressed and were looking for a way out.
One of the new deal programs was created to put electricity to rural areas. This was called the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). The new deal was to create jobs for people during the Great Depression but also help figure out how to fix the small holes in America. One was rural areas not having electricity. By now the cities like Chicago and New York had electricity but most rural homes had none.
For example, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created jobs for millions of unemployed Americans through public works projects, such as building schools and roads. In addition, the National Recovery Administration (NRA) established codes that regulated wages and prices, which helped increase consumer purchasing power. As a result, economic output began to recover, and GDP increased by 10% between 1933 and 1936 (Document C). This evidence demonstrates that the New Deal was effective in promoting economic growth and stability. Despite its successes, the New Deal also had some significant drawbacks.
The New Deal created many of things for the Americas, but one of the most important things it did for the Americans gave them an opportunity to be employed. In document D, one program, Works Progress Administration or WPA, states it employed 8.5 million in construction and other jobs but more importantly provided work in art, theater, and literary projects. The New Deal was very successful in employing citizens, in 1937 the unemployment rate was at 9.1% comparing that to in 1932 when it was at 20.6% that was an 11.5% drop in five years ( Document E). Another program that helped unemployed men were the CCC, the CCC sent “250,000 young men to work camps to perform reforestation and conservation task.(Doc D)” This was beneficial to both parties, America and the unemployed, because it removed the surplus of workers from cities provided healthy conditions for boys and provided money for families.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation restored the public’s confidence in the federal government through acts that protected and promoted the general welfare of American. The new direction abandoned the previous administration's laissez-fair style Roosevelt took immediate action after his inauguration signing the Banking Act of 1933. In the wake of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, the Banking Act, aliened with his first goal was to repair the people’s trust in the nation's financial system. Roosevelt described the law passed by Congress as having, “authority to develop a program of rehabilitation of our banking facilities.” The new regulations hinder the reopening of banks based on assessments that ensured only healthy banks would
His vision was to create a federal program called the New Deal, which would get the economy out of turmoil. Upon his inauguration Roosevelt called congress into special session and seeded his New Deal plans. The most important legislation of the New Deal was the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that helped put young men to work in national forests and parks and this helped free up jobs that were held with these men. He also created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which attempted to increase farm income by reducing farm production, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and National Recovery Association (NRA). All of these programs were meant to promote jobs, organize the industrial sector, and provide utilities.
Historians have been debating the New Deal for decades. Some, like David M. Kennedy, believe the New Deal was a watershed moment in American history, while others, like Burton Folsom, believe it was a misguided and ineffective set of policies. While Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs were well-intended and aimed to address the Great Depression's economic and social challenges, they fell short of their objectives. The New Deal did not address the underlying causes of the Depression effectively, resulting in prolonged economic hardship and a failure to provide long-term solutions to the economic crisis. Roosevelt's implementation of the New Deal portrayed him as a great president, and its programs as a step in the right direction.
President Roosevelt New Deal programs was able to slowly get Americans back on their feet again. The New Deal was able to stabilize banks after the initial stock market crash in 1929. The program also created a ton of job programs-- such as the Public Works Administration. The idea behind the New Deal was that the government job to ensure that Americans received some basic level of assistance. Though the New Deal was constructed to leave some Americans out -- a generation and a half of African Americans did not have access to the programs, it helped many Americans get back their lives back.
“The WPA taught 400,000 African American women and men to read and write” (Katz). This is a freedom from the effect of the Great Depression because now more African Americans can read and write, unlike when the Great Depression was happening. Again, this is a positive effect of the New Deal because now that these African American men and women can read and write, and they can now get a jobs. The Roosevelt Administration set up the Resettlement Administration to help poor farmers relocate to marginal lands by providing loans (“New Deal”). First, this is a positive effect of the New Deal because it helped poor farmers move to better land to grow better produce to make up for the lost from the Great Depression.