On October 24, 1929 the stock market crashed. The crash followed the seemingly prosperous time of the 2’0s. When the market-crashed people began to panic and many people started to sell back. Then on that following Tuesday prices plummeted and the country faced $30 billion in losses. This signaled the start of the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt came up with many New Deal programs to help with the loss of jobs and the poor economic situation. These programs were appropriate in fixing the faltering American economic structure. It was appropriate because it was needed to break the terrible jobless cycle, it started many reform programs that were necessary for a country even in good economic times, and the president got out when he felt that the economy was recovering.
The programs were necessary because people would continue losing jobs if some people were not helped out to increase spending and get the economy going. If businesses lay off workers and then those workers are out of work, the workers will not have money to buy other things. When the workers don’t buy anything businesses don’t make as much and are forced to lay off some of their workers. This leads to a vicious cycle of job loss and a lack of spending throughout the country. The only solution is for the government getting involved and spending to put people back to work. This also caused many improvements throughout the country such as the building of roads, other buildings, and programs to Roosevelt explains this in his First Inaugural Speech on March 4, 1933. In the speech he said, “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.” This quote explains the benefits of the government creating jobs. If the President had done any less and didn’t go as far, the economic situation may not have been resolved as quickly.
Also some of the programs that were started in the Great Depression are still around today. One example of this is social security. In 1935 the Social Security Act was passed. It created a national pension fund, and unemployment insurance system, and a public assistance program for dependent mothers and children, the physically disabled, and others who really needed help. This program is still around today and helps many people. It used to be just a side income for retired people but now it is sometimes the primary income for many people. It costs the government a lot of money and the tax people fund it. If social security were removed many people would not have any money to live on when they retired but it would limit the countries deficit.
The other reason that Roosevelt’s programs were appropriate and not too far is because Roosevelt stopped most of the programs when he felt that the economy was starting to recover. This was to stop the deficit from growing larger. If the deficit got any larger there would have been extreme inflation. This was a great accomplishment because President Roosevelt was able to get the economy back on track without making the country suffer in the future.
If President Roosevelt would have went farther than he did in the programs the deficit would have been to big. If he didn’t go as far as he did the economy may not have recovered as quickly and the losses would have been more devastating.
*All dates and Statistics are from the text book “American Passages
Edward L. Ayers, David M. Ochinsky, Lewis L. Gould, Jean R. Soderlund, “American Passages”
