New Deal- Short Term Effects and Critiques

1. New Deal- Short Term Effects and Critiques

2. Short Term Effects: An Overview • Ineffective at ending Great Depression (Economy really didn’t begin to grow until World War II) • BUT: • Unemployment lowered • Consumer spending increased • New relief programs (Social Security)

3. Negative Critiques: New Deal Not Far Enough Huey Long

4. Huey Long • U.S. Senator (LA) • Populist • Formerly supported FDR AND New Deal • Goal: limit poverty by redistributing income “sharing the wealth”

5. What Do You Think????? • What problem will be solved by this step? Who will be affected? What’s wrong with current approaches? • Who will pay for it? • What might not work?

6. FDR- “The Four Freedoms”

7. God vs. the Government? Huey Long: “…unless we limit the size of the big man so as to give something to the little man, we can never have a happy or free people. God said so! He ordered it… “why not let all have their fill and lie down in the ease and comfort God has given us. Why not?”- Speech before the Senate- January 14, 1935 Sam Brownbeck: “Our dependence is not on Big Government but on a Big God that loves us and lives within us…“Which way to choose? We know the way. God wrote it in our hearts.”- State of the State Address- January 15, 2014

8. Kings with crowns: What would it take? • Make a list of what each family should have, at a minimum, to be economically and socially comfortable. • Is our standard of living similar or different from that of the 1930’s?

9. Negative Critiques: New Deal TOO Far • Size and Control of Federal Government Increased Too Much • Enormous Amount of Deficit Spending

10. Debt vs. Deficit • Deficit=when a government spends more than it takes in. • Example: If government takes in $10 trillion but spends $15 trillion, deficit= $3 trillion • Debt=accumulated deficits over time.

11. Debt vs. Deficit Deficit=Blue Debt=Red

12. Debt vs. Deficit

13. Positive Critiques • Helped millions of Americans survive Depression: • Jobs • Housing • Food • Improved National Infrastructure • Strengthened Banks • Social Security

14. Social Security

15. Did the New Deal help African-Americans? Yes Not “Did the New Deal improve the lot of African Americans? The record is mixed.. Racism reared its head in the New Deal, often because federal programs were administered through local authorities or community leaders who brought their own racial biases to the table. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) offered white landowners cash for leaving their fields fallow, which they happily accepted; they, however, did not pass on their government checks to the black sharecroppers and tenant farmers who actually worked the land. Even in the North, blacks found that New Deal programs did not always treat them as well as whites.” • “New Deal agencies like the WPA, the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) grew more sensitive throughout the 1930s to the needs of African-Americans, largely because of the leadership of Roosevelt appointees at those agencies. Indeed, African Americans found significant allies in the administration, from Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to the First Lady herself, Eleanor Roosevelt. Enough blacks, like Mary McLeod Bethune, found themselves in leadership positions that there was even talk of a ‘black Cabinet’ of FDR advisers.” http://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/essays/biography/8

16. Does pragmatism come with a price? • “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”- Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Did many Americans simply accept the New Deal because it represented a dramatic shift from previous policies (or lack thereof- Hoover’s “Do nothing” philosophy)? • How do politicians justify massive amounts of spending today? When might it be necessary? Think about current programs. • Is it possible for a politician to make a decision that does not hurt or upset at least one group of people?