Do you realize what America faced when the New Deal was ushered in?

Question

For all those that believe FDR a socialist, think again. When FDR took office in '32, the price of a bushel of wheat cost less than a pack of gum, 1/2 of real property was foreclosed and sold IN ONE DAY in Arkansas, an estimated 32% of home owners faced forclosure, there was a MAJOR run on the biggest banks across America threatening the solvency of 28-30% of cash assets in America, 1 % of farms below the Mason Dixon line had no electricity, nearly 35% of American were out of work, and on, and on, and on.

Surprisingly, FDR in fact was not an idealogue, he took swift and sweeping actions to prevent America from going down the economic tubes, as a result of 3 previous years of total inaction and denial by the previous administration that occupied the White House.

Showtunes...the supreme court challenge FDR made later in his second term was a mistake, but, he did not "stack" the supreme court. In fact, the legislation he attmpted on the matter failed in Congress. He left the decision to his Generals on the matter of the Japanese, but, should have stepped in on behalf of the Japanese it is true, but, this alone, does not deem his admin. a failure

Answer 1

The argument goes on today as to what caused the Great Depression. Inaction in regards to loan and security regulations may have cause the Great Depression, but no one has a crystal ball. There was no way at the time to know in advance the effects of a market crash. It had never happened before, at least not at that magnitude.
The era that led up the the depression was a time that people were borrowing money to buy stocks. This over investment in the stock market drove stock prices up way beyond the prices the fundamentals of the companies supported. A major correction was inevitable. When that correct came, all those people who bought stocks on margin were required to come up with more money. This led to liquidation of hard assets like real estate. The rush of sales on the real estate market drove down the price of property. This in turn led to a run on banks whose assets were primarily mortgages.
The fact is, capital didn't evaporate during the market crash. The period of time that common working people were investing in inflated stocks was a time that capital was concentrated at the upper income levels. The people who were selling these over priced stocks were racking in the dough.
The process, however, clean out the bank accounts and hard assets of the middle class in America. As a result, the country was left with consumers with empty pockets. There was no one to buy products. With no consumers to spend money, industry became idle. More jobs were lost. Less and less money circulated, and a downward spiral developed.
None of the New Deal programs had any effect in getting the economy going again. All these programs did was relieve hunger at the very lowest income levels. In the meantime, the capital the wealthy amassed during the 1920s, sat idle. There was nothing for the rich to invest in. For the common working people, their money sat under their mattresses. No one trusted banks anymore. The banking system had dried up and there was no money available to borrow for any purpose, such as home purchase or business.
The situation did not change until the start of World War II. The war created a huge manufacturing need: arms. There was something for the wealthy to invest their money into, war products. And, there were lots of customers. Jobs were created over night.
The USA needed money to pay for the arms. They issued secure war bonds. Common people took their money from under their mattresses and invested in war bonds. An economy started up.
During WWII, the USA built and supplied 60% of the arms used by the Allied powers to fight the war. The arms we supplied to the world wasn't given to them free of charge. Other countries we supplied paid for these arms. It took England into this century to repay that war debt. The country amassed a fortune from supplying arms. It was that burst of manufacturing that eliminated the depression, not the New Deal programs.
The fact is had the Great Depression not happened, it is unlikely the USA would have won WWII. There wouldn't have been billions of uninvested dollars available to invest in a war machine. Had all the wealthy people's money been invested in a booming butter economy, they wouldn't have been interested in investing in an unsure gun economy. People with wealth invest in a sure thing. They are resistant towards investing in projects with unsure outcome, like a war. At the time, it was a rule not to invest in a company that had union labor because one never knew when a labor strike would upset profits.
Anyway, the general premise of you question is flawed. Events and society shaped the Great Depression and its recovery, not the government.

Answer 2

The New Deal did not keep the American economy from going down the tubes, it was already there when he took office. The only thing the New Deal did to rally the American people and give them hope. I commend him for this and he was a very tremendous man. But to say he ended the Great Depression(which you didn't actually say) is absurd. Herbert Hoover probably didn't do much worse than FDR, had FDR been elected in '28 he probably would have been thrown out, and the public would have been calling for a laize-fair ( I do hope that is spelled correctly) president.
EDIT: I probably should say there was some minor economic improvement during the New Deal.

And of course he wasn't a socialist.

Answer 3

It doesn't matter if the funds are private or not. Were talking about an event for an elected official. If Obama really wanted "change" this would have been a great opportunity for him to encourage these private funds be put to better use. If Democrats donated as much money to charity we wouldn't need all these wasteful programs. The media had a field day with the amount of money Bush spent for his when the economy was good. ((double standard)) Yes the inauguration is an historic event but from what I've seen it's being turned into a MTV special. Looks like business as usual in Washington, shame on Obama.

Answer 4

"Surprisingly, FDR in fact was not an idealogue, he took swift and sweeping actions to prevent America from going down the economic tubes, as a result of 3 previous years of total inaction and denial by the previous administration that occupied the White House."

...Ugh. That sounds familiar.

Answer 5

FDR took office in 1933 after the election in 1932.

Surprisingly, FDR in fact was not an idealogue, he took swift and sweeping actions to prevent America from going down the economic tubes, as a result of 3 previous years of total inaction and denial by the previous administration that occupied the White House

And his actions are what make him consistantly rated as one of our best Presidents ever.

Actually inaction by the Harding (R), Coolidge(R) and Hoover(R) Administrations caused the crash and the mess you cite that Roosevelt (D)inherited.

Answer 6

Why ask a question if youre just going to answer it yourself?

In response though, it still does not excuse his not putting time limits on the whole thing.

Are you also able to defend his trying to stack the Supreme Court to cement his parties control of all three branches?

How about his policies that promoted racism against the Japanese?
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I did say tried for stacking the SC. He failed because his own party even realized he was power hungry by that point.

As for the racism, he approved the pre-war campaigns that promoted it. Both during and before the war these were not unknown things. He obviously knew what was going on, he chose not to do anything about it. He allowed the gov't to give money to WB for things like "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips." He allowed the military to consider the Japanese sub human.

They dont mean his administration was bad, but you have to consider both the bad and the good. You cant blindly say he was great for one program and ignore all else.
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BTW, New Deal programs did many things for people including helping to provide food and housing for people who were starving. The New Deal is one of those rare cases when the gov't does the right thing-helped people who were unable to help themselves. The New Deal also created gov't agencies that created more jobs for people thus helping the economy. It was too late for it to do anything quickly or be a fix on its own, but it was very helpful to many people.
(Sidenote: both Reagan and Bush expanded the federal gov't more than once to help create jobs in a bad economy-its been a regular practice since it worked so well back then)

Answer 7

What you ignore is that the New Deal did not work. Sure, FDR had good and noble reasons for it...but the solutions were indeed socialistic and like most social programs, they were completely ineffective.

The event that ended all those troubles and kick-started our economy was, ironically, World War II. I suggest you brush up on your history instead of making excuses for failed policies.

Answer 8

...and things just got worse until the war started. Whats your point? How does the disaster of the depression have any bearing on why we need these incredibly wasteful programs today?

The depression was caused by bad government policy and increased intrusion by the federal government into the business sector. Artificially low interest rates, rampant deficit spending, anti-trade policies - does any of this ring a bell?

Answer 9

Yea wait 6 months, we'll be looking for FDR again.

Answer 10

Sure I know. I agree at that time his programs were probably a necessary evil. the problem is that they continued and even grew over the decades and that growth is a big part of the problems we face today..............