The constriction of the Hoover Damn occurred during the Great Depression, this was an opportunity for employment that attracted an estimated 20,000 men. This project provided a positive temporary solution for the unemployed, although this was only available to a certain audience of people. Hoover did however take many other steps in an attempt to stabilise the economy; unfortunately most were ineffective. For example he placed an even higher tariff on imports through the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, however it backfired as American goods became too expensive to buy in Europe, further contributing to the economic crisis. The programs in place for the public were small in scale and highly specific as to who could benefit, only a small percentage of those who were in need were successfully accounted for.
In Opposite of Hoover was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who the American public saw as their saviour and as the one who singlehandedly led them out of the depression. This paper is going to compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt's policies in an attempt to explain why one
Hoover understood that not being involved into the lives of the American people worked for Coolidge, if something is going well, there's no need to change it. Until the Great Depression in 1929 he kept that mentality, but something needed to change and was expected of him when the economy was so low. He created the Reconstruction Finance Corp. with the 3 platforms of volunteerism, localism, and rugged-individualism. Describing volunteerism as helping each other out and the need to get involved, localism focused on state governments to make their attempt to fix the problem first rather than the federal government, and rugged-individualism was this new term of growing character and that American culture of fixing things out on their own and after getting through the rough and tough, they will succeed. “Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement “ (DOC C).
Even though Hoover wasn’t re-elected after 1933, his failed attempt at laissez-faire still affected the American people. An example of this is Roosevelt’s attempt at counteracting Hoover’s Rugged individualism. During Roosevelt’s campaign he promised a ‘New Deal’ for the American people, where, especially in comparison to Hoover’s: ‘laissev-faire’, the US government would be more involved with businesses and the country’s citizens. Summed up, the ‘New Deal’ was about doing everything to keep the country from disaster.
The wealth during the 1920s left Americans unprepared for the economic depression they would face in the 1930s. The Great Depression occurred because of overproduction by farmers and factories, consumption of goods decreased, uneven distribution of wealth, and overexpansion of credit. Hoover was president when the depression first began, and he maintained the government’s laissez-faire attitude in the economy. However, after the election of FDR in 1932, his many alphabet soup programs in his first one hundred days in office addressed the nation’s need for change.
The last people he is saving is the unemployed. Hoover felt if big businesses were doing well, that in turn would help the American people get good jobs and be able to take care of
History CA – Part C In 1929 the US experienced a huge change in economy known as the ‘Wall Street Crash’, this was the largest economic bust in American history. During the time of the economic depression, the president was Herbert Hoover, a republican who strongly believed in laissez faire, which essentially meant that he believed that things should be left alone, and not interfered with. Hoover believed that things would sort themselves out by themselves within a matter of time. For the citizens of the United States, this was seen as Hoover being useless, and not even attempting to make a change to the society, which was in ruins.
The longest and most dreadful downturn in economic history tossed millions of the hardworking people of America into poverty, for more than a decade neither the federal government or the free market were able to restore themselves from prosperity. Due to the Great Depression, an impetus was provided for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, this deal would forever change the relationship between the government and the American people. The New Deal was considered to be one of the most remarkable times of political reform in American history. In hindsight, it began to become easier to view the New Deal as the essential response to the Depression. However, the New Deal at the time was only one of the countless possible responses to an American capitalist system that had professedly lost its way.
As a result, GDP fell 8.5% as this just isolated America’s trade partners. (6.4) Even during his speeches, Hoover pushed responsibility away, hoping that the Great Depression would just go away like magic to retain his hands-off philosophy. During his second State of the Union Address, he said “There are many factors which give encouragement for the future. The fact that we are holding from 80 to 85% of our normal activities and incomes; that our major financial and industrial institutions have come through the storm unimpaired…”
As someone who had always struggled financially throughout his life, he felt he could bring America back up from the depression, as seen in Document 4. Hoover is pulling up America from a waterfall as Europe keeps falling with no help, representing America striving for recovery and Europe’s past recession. A conservative idea seen by Hoover was his belief in rugged individualism, he believed that the Americans should help themselves from the despair of the Great Depression. He also believed that the people should not rely solely on the government’s assistance and the government should not overly aid the people. In Document 2, it is seen that Hoover felt the most effective way for the Americans to end the depression was to volunteer themselves into community services.
This led to an economic decline and a never-ending cycle of decline in the United States. President Hoover was in office during this time, and not many were happy. Americans were looking for help from the government and not receiving anything. Americans felt as though Hoover wasn’t trying to help their situations. “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American
During the great depression Hoover tried to take action by, “Hoover’s response to the crisis was constrained by his conservative political philosophy. He believed in a limited role for government and worried that excessive federal intervention posed a
The idea of Laissez-Faire was that the government should interfere with the public’s daily lives as little as possible, leaving the business people alone to do their jobs. The government believed that the public would work harder without aid, therefore industries would prosper. Low taxation was also a key factor in the boom, by 1928, only 2% of taxpayers
Hoover President Herbert Hoover didn’t believe that it was the federal government’s role to provide direct relief. Instead he suggested voluntarism, asking corporations to improve working conditions and wages. Lowering income taxes was another idea promoted by Hoover. If people would spend less on taxes, they would invest in stock market and purchase products. Hoover refused against any form of a welfare program.
Many of Hoover’s policies favored big businesses and he believed that the growth of the economy depended on increasing capital given to big businesses would combat the depression, which is also known as the Trickle Down economics. If the government aided big businesses then their investments and success would “trickle-down” to the working class, this improving and expanding the economy (Doc 5). Many people criticized Hoover and his policies for not helping the needy. He refused to provide federal relief programs to help unemployed since he thought people would not be motivated to work if the government aided them (OI).As conditions worsened, makeshift homes popped up all over America and were nicknamed “Hoovervilles”, after Herbert Hoover. Hoover believed that that individual initiative and big businesses would solve the problems of the depression and that the economy would recover on its own (OI).
