When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, he had a set of ideals in mind that he felt could bring the US out of the Great Depression. This set of ideals was called the New Deal. The New Deal brought a lot of promise to the American people during a time when they needed it most. Roosevelt wanted to stimulate the economy once again by giving the unemployed jobs and setting a base for the financial system. Some of the acts he put into effect during his first hundred days in office were the Public Works Administration (PWA), Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), and the Banking Act of 1933. All of these New Deal programs helped pave the way for Americans to get back on the path of success.
Although many people were critical of the New Deal, the results proved to be beneficial to the country. The unemployment rate had gone down as a result of the New Deal from 40% in 1933 to 15% in 1940. The New Deal was successful because it was the beginning of the post-Depression era where people were able to start to remake themselves with the help of the New Deal.
I'd like to agree with you and also add on to the end of the new deal that at the end of the new deal because of the criticism and opposing views, Roosevelt was forced to discontinue the policies. However, these policies created the first ever time for government to be engaged with the general affairs and crisis of the people. That slowly, the Roosevelt policies was outshone by World War II as the increase in military needs grew. The wider public was so focused on the issues with Europe at the time and even his own interests was shifted eventually towards the threat of war.
ReplyDeleteAs much as the New Deal was beneficial to US, it also had drawbacks, which therefore drew criticism from many. The money that the New Deal had gotten, came from the collected taxes of the people, to be redistributed to these projects to help the economic crisis. I personally don't really think New Deal helped to add anything new, it's just like refreshing the cards of the pile (the money and properties) and dishing them out (the projects and income from working for these projects) to prevent stalemate in a way (since the people didn't really know what to do).
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