How successful were the New Deals?

Leading up to The Great Depression, there were many issues in America that required significant attention. The Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 was one of the main contributors to the long years of national depression in the 1930’s. However the events that came along with it were also very demanding. Bank failures, unemployment, farming collapses and industrial letdowns were all key factors in this time of devastating depression, but with the American Presidential elections of 1932, a set of New Plans were formed by President Roosevelt to save America’s Capitalistic Economy. President Roosevelt’s new deals of the 1930’s were seen as the radical action needed during The Great Depression to help the American people and the American economy. However some people criticized it for not being radical enough as it didn’t help all Americans, whereas others saw it as completely ridiculous. Roosevelt started off by introducing many different acts in his first 100 days of government including the alphabet agencies and the famous beer act. These acts and agencies were designed to help certain groups of people but also meant that others were left out. Therefore Roosevelt had to create a second new deal to target other issues. America; 1930-1939

At its early stages in 1929 and the early 1930’s, The Great Depression was only an economic problem, which could have been resolved by giving more money to consumers to spend and boost the economy again. However President Hoover believed that the problem was entirely at the businesses and banks fault and that they could fix their problems themselves, but he was wrong. Hoover simply ignored the problem and businesses did not fix the problem, so it only got worse. People had no jobs or money and they were unable to bring the economy back to its feet. But with the approach of the election of 1932 there arose new promises and new visions for the American economy. Franklin Roosevelt came into the running for president and announced his bold and innovative plan of action, the New Deal. Not only were Roosevelt and his ideas on a more democratic level, but he won after many years of Republican control. With the election of President Roosevelt, in came his new policy and his fresh ideas about funding and financially helping consumers who were creative and original.

Ideas during the first hundred days from March to June of 1933 were very important. President Roosevelt concentrated on what he called the three R’s – Relief, Recovery and Reform. He created a number of innovative organizations and actions he took included the Emergency Banking Relief Act, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, The Famous Beer Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act. The Emergency Banking Relief Act gave the president power over banks and their affairs with foreign trade. Whereas the Civilian Conservation Corps concentrated on the citizens and was a work relief organization that provided jobs for unemployed people, mostly young men. They worked in construction, park building, road building and reforestation as a way to improve American infrastructure. These were just some of the ideas president Roosevelt used to try and put America’s capitalistic economy back on its feet.

My Own Opinion of the New Deal:

During his second term, President Roosevelt overstepped the line and took debatable actions that proved to be very unpopular. Soon thereafter, Roosevelt made another mistake by reducing the amount of money he put towards the economy in the hopes that the economy would finally pull out of the depression by itself. Lacking enough support the economy crumpled again, causing what was known as the Roosevelt Recession. This caused America to become very unhappy with Roosevelt and ended with him losing majority of his support and being voted out of government shortly thereafter. I personally feel that President Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930’s negatively and positively affected America’s capitalistic economy. There were moments where it helped to strengthen the economy and helped people to get back on their feet, as well as for businesses and banks to reopen. However, President Roosevelt’s radical ideas began to collapse upon him as some people feared he was turning into a socialist due to the all the new radical ideas that were being put through congress during the late 1930’s. Though The New Deal was ultimately unsuccessful, President Roosevelt set some socialist acts that did help pull America through the Great Depression and set the stage for future acts to come.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately The New Deal faded away in the late 1930s mainly because Roosevelt grew overconfident in his own abilities to end the Great Depression. As a result, he made many bad decisions that turned a significant group of Americans against him and the New Deal. Had Roosevelt not overstepped his boundaries by means of the court packing scheme of 1937 or strongly denying responsibility for the 1937 recession, the New Deal might have survived longer than it actually did.

In conclusion it has been viewed that President Roosevelt’s new deal helped America’s economy, but it was only a quick fix. My personally impression is that The New Deal initially helped to strengthen America’s capitalistic economy but in the end it slightly dug a deeper hole for many Americans. Had World War 2 not come along, I feel America would have struggled to get back on its feet as quickly as it did and would not be the superpower it is today.