What extent did President Roosevelt’s New Deal help American society during the 1930s.

The Great Depression and the New Deal
Weekly Discussion Board Question: Analyze the causes of the Great Depression and argue to what extent did President Roosevelt’s New Deal help American society during the 1930s.
To answer this consider the cause and effect relationship of the following events:
1) speculation of the stock market
2) buying goods on credit
3) the Stock Market Crash of 1929
4) FDR’s Bank Holiday
5) deficit spending
6) labor unions/ collective bargaining
Due Date: Monday, October 18th
You will need to address all these concepts in your report using primary and secondary documents (Foner.) This will be time-consuming, so take your time to carefully study the following documents. All responses should be a minimum of three paragraphs in length. Your threads will greatly contribute to a more solid understanding of how the Great Depression and the New Deal permanently changed the role of the U.S. federal government in its relationship with the American public.
The 1920s through 1941:
Historical Context: During this time period the stock market collapsed due to an unprecedented level of over-speculation brought on by a lack of government regulation. Congress and President Hoover had little warning of such a crash and had no previous example of how to handle such a situation. Nothing before had been as drastic in our nation’s history-economically- like the crash of 1929. By the height of the Depression, one in four Americans was without work. The government under Hoover followed a previous policy of laissez-faire economics and predicted that business owners would recuperate. Yet with the crash came the loss of credit with the banks. Most Americans did not own stocks but had invested their money into the banks. Banks in turn invested money into the market. Once the crash happened and without any government insurance plan in place, banks had no way to compensate for these losses. In a time without social security, unemployment insurance, or mortgage insurance, Americans had no safety net to fall back on leading millions to abandon foreclosed homes and travel the roads looking for work.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected in November 1932 in a landslide election, led the Democratic party in a new direction by beginning what his brain trust of advisors has labeled “A New Deal.” Derived from economist John Maynard Keynes, FDR (Roosevelt) developed a plan that would expand the role of government by building federal agencies directed to providing economic relief for America’s citizens. The National Recovery Act, Emergency Relief Act, Workers Progress Administration, and Civilian Conservation Corps funded billions of dollars to Americans out of work, created government projects to repair infrastructure employing millions of Americans, and placed homeless American youth into conservation camps where youth learned a skilled trade and completed their education. The result was an increase in government spending and the expansion of the size of government, but also the reduction of unemployment and the increase in economic productivity. Our audio lecture goes into further detail.
The key pieces of New Deal legislation rested in the following landmark Acts:
1935: The Social Security Act. FDR created a plan with Congress to fund the retirement of all Americans and sponsor widows and the disabled through a retirement fund gradually collected through a percentage of wages taken by the federal government. Prior to this, Americans had no retirement option other than the stock market or cash savings.
1936: The Wagner Act: Francis Perkins, the first female cabinet member of the presidency and secretary of labor, argued for the legalization of organized labor. Prior to this union, organizers fighting for better wages, fringe benefits, and safer working conditions could be fired without due process, beaten, or jailed. FDR persuaded Congress to pass the act thereby legalizing unions which led to the highest levels of worker representation by the 1950s.
1938: Fair Labor Standards Act: Federal mandated an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage, two items that labor leaders had struggled to achieve since the 1800s.
Historians debate how effective the New Deal was economically, socially, and politically in restoring America. Liberal economists argue that America was facing a political collapse by 1932 that was the worst since the Civil War. Without taking such measures, unemployment would have increased and a worker’s revolution was plausible. The increased spending decreased unemployment, increased productivity, and forged a new role for the government that increased its level of responsibility to its citizens in a manner that many New Deal historians view as a new form of democracy promoting the social welfare of every citizen.
Critics of the New Deal view such measures as wasteful and even socialist. Historians of this side of the debate argue that FDR’s policies, while well-intended, did not end the Depression and did not stimulate the private sector. This side also argues that increased spending further weakened the nation by increasing the deficit and the expansion of federal programs created a dependency on the government that curbed productivity and weakened individual business owners’ control of their own enterprises.
You will need to carefully review the New Deal Reader and the text to properly contextualize this time period. Your discussion board will be posted and published by Monday afternoon. Please review the details of the discussion thread in this announcement prior to engaging the readings. The supporting visuals listed in our unit on the New Deal are there to assist you with your research and may be viewed at your own pace throughout the week.

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