How Effective Was The New Deal Essay

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How effective was the New Deal?
American history has undergone many different changes, some beneficial, some stepping stones to where we are now, and some just disastrous. Franklin Roosevelt "conceptualized the idea of the New Deal by implementing recovery, relief, and reform." (HIST 131 Lecture, March 16, 2023) in hopes of getting America out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt's recovery program was made possible by implementing the Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933), which was set in place to offer farmers government money in exchange for limiting the production of certain crops for crop prices to go up. Roosevelt's relief program was put in place to "bring immediate aid to those who needed it, which came from the Federal Emergency Relief …show more content…

Martha was a reporter hired by Harry Hopkins (the director of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration), and her job was to report what was happening in the nation. This letter was written about one and a half years after Franklin Roosevelt was elected president during the Great Depression. She states in her report, "These people will be slow to give up hope; slow to doubt the president. But if they don't get their jobs; then what?" (Gelhorn, p.2) In her report, Martha Gelhorn acknowledges that the New Deal by Franklin Roosevelt did provide some relief for people, especially those who suffered throughout the Great Depression. Still, she also argues that the government needs to do more. She mentioned that the New Deal that was put in place was failing to help the people that needed it most. She capitalizes on the fact that rates for unemployment were still high, and insufficient housing as well as healthcare in America. There was also a lot of discrimination in who was allowed to be a part of the government relief programs, discriminating against African Americans and other minority groups. Her overall argument was that the government needed to intervene more, or the same issues would continue as they did in the Great …show more content…

Huey Long believed that after three years of Roosevelt being president, unemployment was still an issue, and it even felt like it was getting worse; people were not able to afford to live in their homes and were struggling even to feed themselves and their families. He felt so strongly about it that he organized a program called "Share the Wealth" that endorsed wealth redistribution and gave a speech on his thoughts on the New Deal. In his speech, he mentions this about the New Deal, "We find not only the people going further into debt, but that the United States is going further in debt." (Long, p.1) He feels like some of the reform from the New Deal is working and thinks the best way to fix the economic issues is to heavily tax the wealthy class so that no family has a certain amount of monthly income. This angered both political parties and upper-class citizens (business owners) because it threatened their wealth and

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