Why did President Roosevelt implement the New Deal, what did he hope to achieve with it?

Question

Do you think that the New Deal programs were successful?

Answer 1

The New Deal came during an exceptional time in United States history. Due to the Great Depression of 1929 the economy collapsed. There were many causes of it, such as business not sharing enough profits with the people, so they could not buy the goods. Too much wealth was concentrated at the top. This was on an unprecedented level. The stock market crash played a role, but was not the Depression; they were separate events, although the crash certainly tremendously worsened and even could be said to have triggered the Great Depression. The great late economist Milton Friedman has persuasively written on the how the bad monetary policies of the Federal Reserve Board also produced great damage. I am not an economist, so check out his important comments on this issue for better understanding.

All of these mentioned above are to show that President Franklin Roosevelt came into a horrible situation. It was one absolutely not of his own making, like Bush in Iraq. Unlike Hoover who only talked, FDR promised to take action. Hoover, who was not as bad as Coolidge as worshipping big business to the point whoredom, simply talked and believed in trickle down economics. With millions of Americans starving and unemployed (fairly stated at one-third nationwide), some help had to come. President Herbert Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation and other lame action was insufficient. The private sector had exhausted its relief efforts.

Therefore, President Roosevelt produced dramatic action. He gave people relief, he provided jobs through agency's such as the CWA, PWA, and more. He began bank and stock reform and regulation that was needed. Under FDR many banks were saved. The South had the greatest poverty of this time. He established the TVA, which controlled flooding and provided power to region that had previously lacked it. In an era when about 30 percent of the work force were farmers, he got farms prices raised to a decent wage, and encouraged diversified farming. One crop cotton farming had been one of Dixie's great problems. You can read further on the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. There are criticisms that can be made of it, but under the perlious times I think, overall, it was a tremendous success.

There were other New Deal reforms. The United States is economically conservative, and so these reforms were bold for their times. Social Security is at least some net of protection that had not existed. Before the New Deal labor had virtually no power.

A large number of historians, such as Arthur Schlesinger, William Leuchtenburg, and others would see Roosevelt as a savior, not enemy of capatilism. If somehow a president had stayed in office who thought starving Americans could be talked out their plight, or that enough crumbs would have fallen off the table for them, then there might have been a revolution of sorts. The New Deal definetly had the deepest American radicalism we have ever known.

Therefore, President Roosevelt mainly hoped to save capitalism with his reforms, have more shared wealth, but absolutely not socialism or loss of economic freedom. On this basis, while no vast amount of programs during a time of terrible crisis are going to be perfect, the New Deal did succeed.

Answer 2

The country was in the worst depression in history. Public works programs give people jobs and thus they can buy a living amount of necessities and a few creature comforts. This is the John Maynards Keynes model of the Circular Flow. The biggest concern of Roosevelt was to save capitalism through a period of public jobs, and giving government contracts to private businesses who would join the National Recovery Act. In the short term private business would take less in profit, and allow themselves to be regulated so that they could survive and be prosperous in the future. John L. Lewis, the legendary labor leader, kept reminding FDR that there will be a bloody revolution in the US, and that our country may become fascist or communist. In the early 1930's and during the first year of FDR's presidency it was in the small cities and towns in the midwest where people would overthrow their mayor, take over banks, arming themselves and so on. And FDR and his advisors new deal did work. In fact in 1937 we were out of the depression. However FDR wrongly decided to let wall street off the leash and we went back into the depression. Many will say it was the terrible ww2 that first took us out of the depression and that is false. Of course the huge manufacture of weapons did pull us out of the depression but at a terrible cost. There were many neocon type conservatives back then. But Hoover was not one of them. He did make the mistake of not acting on controlling wall street and speculators, He would have done the same thing FDR's administration did to save capitalism and freedom(although the two are not synonyms. Most western European Countries have a strong socialist or public sector, along with a privated sector and freedom of speech etc too). Today in 2015 it is not if but when a new market crash or depression. We need a real FDR new deal on steroids because today the wealth gap is even worse than it was back then. And today unlike back in the late 1920's and 1930's we did not have this evil amalgamation of the huge corporations and banks with the US military. My only hope is that the pentagon breaks with the robber barrons of today and follows and defends the next president's new deal programs. If the crash happens during Obama's last year now in 2015 all hell will break loose. He is a very weak president. And if Hillary Clinton becomes next president, being another corporate shill with the forked tongue like obama of talking about change for the common people, it will be worse. THAT IS WHY I AM HAPPY THAT BERNIE SANDERS HAS ANNOUNCED HIS RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY. AND I THINK JIM WEBB, LIZ WARREN, JOHN CONYERS JR OR MAXINE WATERS AS VP, SANDERS WILL BE UNBEATABLE, IF THE CORPORATE/MILITARY/POLICE/US CONGRESS COMPLEX DOES NOT OVER THROW HIM. it is not unprecented. General Smedly Butler, the most decorated general in us history, was approached by corporate fat cats to over throw FDR with a coup de tat. He being a decent man informed the administration there was a plot by corporations with US military was squashed.

Answer 3

President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, to get the country back on it's feet and to get it moving again. I believe he wanted to do it for the country's sake, but I also believe a little egoism was in it too- as he would look like a savior, hence, put his 'party' in favor.

Do I think the programs were successful? This is a two edge sword...at the time, I do believe they were successful...'

However, the programs have outlived their usefulness. Now they are hindering folks from actually making lives.

It also bothers me that these programs have actually given the government power over us that they should not have. This has lead to the decay of the average persons privacy and alot of our rights as Americans.

It is time for Americans to step up and take back what our forefathers wanted us to have...however, the government is too used to having this power over us, and so will not make it easy...

Answer 4

Roosevelt become president during the great depression or rather towards the end of it. He was trying to bring the country out of the depression, The New Deal had a great many social reforms as well as providing a number of jobs for people that had been out of work. He was able to bring the country out of the depression and the country was in the middle of an economic boom when World War II hit and it was due to that the country was able to rebuild its navy after pearl harbor

Answer 5

Those on the Far Left say that the New Deal was to provide some hope and mild progress for those in need so that socialism would not take hold in the US. Given the success of socialists prior to FDR, see Eugene V. Debs' presidential race, and their lack of success afterward, the programs succeeded very well.

My father joined for the CCC and survived to beget me. I think it was successful

Answer 6

The programs didn't make much of a difference, because Hoover tried the same stuff.
The main reason Roosevelt was successful was because he oozed confidence. The fun thing with economics is that a recession begets more recession, and an expansion begets more expansion. If people don't spend money, the economy tanks. If the economy tanks, people have less money to spend.
Roosevelt made people believe that they had more money, and so they spent money. This stimulated the economy.

Answer 7

i could say that it grow to be imaginitive in the experience that it marked the dominance in the exchange of economic concept and government action in following the Keynesian college of concept.

Answer 8

He implemented it because he could. Economic recovery was already on track and he rode the coattails.