Roosevelt and The New Deal Essay Sample

The Great Depression was a very sad and depressing time, hence the name. Millions of individuals were affected by the economic downturn, which lasted nearly a decade (1929-1939). The United States was in a condition of despair, with banks failing, many people losing their jobs, and prices plummeting. It was a time of hardship for everybody. But this hardship soon became less severe when Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) began his presidency in 1933 winning the election by a whopping 7 million votes, after Herbert Hoover’s initial inaction.

In the first one hundred days of FDR’s presidency, he was merely trying to restore America back to its glory days. He enacted a slew of new laws and executive orders that gained broad attention and enthusiasm from the American people, this became known as the New Deal. There were three main goals of this deal: relief, recovery, and reform. “Relief” referred to alleviating the depression's immediate hardships. One urgent relief measure that the government put in place was to pay farmers subsidies, in order to reduce production, which led to the raising of farm prices. “Recovery” referred to achieving long-term economic recovery. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA) were two of the recovery efforts that were included. The NRA established industry codes that set minimum wages for workers and minimum prices for goods. The PWA created plenty of new jobs — these jobs included constructing bridges, dams, and power plants, and government buildings. “Reforms” were intended to prevent any future depressions by addressing the factors that led to the crisis in the first place. One important reform was the Social Security Act of 1935. This developed a system of retirement benefits for old-age workers, as well as unemployment insurance. These programs helped improve the lives of those suffering and gave them the opportunity to be productive and confident. The objective of the three R’s was to bring economic stability to the country.

FDR’s mindset to improve America was one of the greatest things that allowed the end to the Great Depression. According to Ken Burns, without FDR’s actions in the early days of the depression, there might not have been a United States of America. FDR was able to persuade and use his power and abilities to help people put their money back in banks — saving the banking system. FDR produced a number of programs that helped begin to pull Americans out of the depression. FDR redesigned the American economy — more than fifty percent of all manufacturing in the entire world took place in the United States by 1945. The New Deal was very impacting. The New Deal's legacy can still be seen today. For example, Social Security, which provides benefits to many Americans. The New Deal’s programs established a precedent for the federal government to play a larger role regarding the nation's economic matters today.

The Great Depression had a negative impact on the United States due to the stock market crash, government inaction, unemployment, price drops, and other issues. But Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal'' programs were a step towards prosperity. The New Deal benefited individuals who were affected by these effects; the programs in the New Deal were intended to make the crisis less severe. In the midst of a difficult event, FDR's New Deal helped America relieve, recover, and reform from the Great Depression. The Great Depression provided an opportunity for today's Americans to learn from the past and ensure that something similar does not happen again.