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President Roosevelt's Ethical Dilemmas During The Great Depression

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President Roosevelt entered office in the midst of the worst economic catastrophe in United States history, The Great Depression. Roosevelt was faced with an obligation to ease the suffering of people faced with poverty, as well as something to rebuild the economy. With both of these areas requiring immediate attention, one of Roosevelt’s first ethical dilemmas was whether he should focus on the individuals in poverty or the banks and corporations.

Providing aid to individuals and families was not a significant focus in American government at the time. Fortunately, Roosevelt saw that it would be a social injustice to only aid banks and corporations, in turn forcing individuals and families to continue in their suffering until the economy eventually turned around. His decision to not only provide aid to banks and corporations, but also to the individuals and families was a turning point for social welfare. …show more content…

Roosevelt was concerned that if he did not utilize a large amount of federal resources to enact monetary services, people would begin experiencing serious health problems and death. He knew he needed to take a bolder and more aggressive approach towards reform than Hoover had.

Despite the negative attitude America had towards federal deficits, Roosevelt decided to make an unusual and revolutionary step towards change. Roosevelt enacted The New Deal, a large series of relief programs, including both direct and indirect and short-term and long-term programs. He also decided to have these programs funded and overseen by both the federal and state government. The programs of The New Deal included cash assistance programs as well as public work

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