New Deal Effectiveness

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The New Deal was an economic plan developed by Franklin D. Roosevelt that was geared towards pulling America out of the Great Depression. Although it did not achieve its main goal, it brought the nation in the right direction so that it finally ended in 1943 when unemployment rates reached pre-depression rates. FDR focused on the “3 R’s”, relief reform, and recovery. Relief was meant for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy, and the reform of the financial issues to further prevent another depression. However, many critics argue that the New Deal was not effective at all in ending the Great Depression because it caused an even greater debt after FDR left office. President Herbert Hoover's attempts at fixing the terrible economy …show more content…

Many rural people lived in severe poverty, especially in the South. To help fix this issue, the New Deal created major programs to address their needs included the Resettlement Administration (RA), the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), National Youth Administration (NYA), Forest Service and Civilian Conservation Corpsman (CCC), and more. Some of these took care of expenses including school lunches, building new schools, opening new roads, and reforestation. In 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority was launched, which was a project involving dam construction planning on an unprecedented scale to reduce flooding and generate electricity. Under the Farmers' Relief Act of 1933, the government paid compensation to farmers who reduced their production, resulting in a price rise. As a result, the average income of farmers nearly doubled by the late 1930’s. Overall, without the New Deal in act, farmers would’ve been forced into poverty way longer than it did.
Another reason the New Deal was mildly effective was because it reduced unemployment. The Public Works Administration (PWA) gave jobs to the unemployed in things like heavy construction to give big cities a ‘face lift’ and building more schools, hospitals, churches, etc., which also opened opportunities for jobs like teachers and nurses. The unemployment rates fluctuated from the highest in 1933, which was ~24%, to the lowest in 1941 at roughly