The New Deal: Relief, Recovery, And Reform

With the economy at on all time low people wanted change, Roosevelt's legislative program represented a new way of government for capitalism in America. Roosevelt first used the term "new deal" when he accepted the Democratic presidental nomination in 1932. He said "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." When Roosevelt became President on March 4, 1933, business was at a standstill and a feeling of panic hit the nation (World Book, Vol.14, p.200). Roosevelt responded with a controversial policy that rocked the nation and what our nation stood for. Roosevelt's New Deal programs aimed at three R's- relief, recovery, and reform.

The United States encountered many ordeals during the Great Depression (1929-1939). Poverty, unemployment and despair clouded the “American Dream” and intensified the urgency for solutions to address and control the nationwide damage. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the New Deal to detoxify the nation of its suffering. It can be argued that the New Deal was ineffective due to the inability to end the Great Depression with its short-term solutions and created more problems, however; it was successful in regards to providing direct relief for the needy, economic recovery and some structural reform for the majority of the general public in the severity of the Great Depression.

In response to the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized a series of economic measures known as the New Deal in the United States between 1933 and 1938. The New Deal concentrated on three major features called the "3 Rs": relief for the unemployed and poor; recovery of the economy to a stable level; and reform of the current economic system to prevent another depression. The New Deal was unsuccessful as it had many shortcomings and failed to improve the state of the nation.

The New Deal was thought up by none other than president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s intentions were meant to help with the current depression at the time which lasted, for about three years. The new deal was meant to make “colored” and whites equal, but that was not the case. Many citizens of the south did not believe “Negros” should get paid minimum wage, but expected them to be paid a lower amount. Many whites opposed any thought of equality between them and African American’s, but that did not stop the (NRA)National Recovery Act. A work program produced from the NRA the (CCC) Civilian Conservation Corps helped many “colored” American’s, benefit from the New Deal. The United States also needed an escape from their current depression, so Roosevelt creates the Work-Relief Bill with equality as his goal.

Once President Franklin Roosevelt was elected during the Great Depression, his first 100 days enacted what he called the New Deal. This “deal” was a series of reforms that were meant to increase available jobs, better the working conditions, and put money back into the economy. Jobs offered during this time, as well as the relief, recovery, and reform efforts gave a kick start to the American economy, helping to pull us out of the Great Depression. Some examples of these efforts can be seen in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the Social Security Act (SSA).

The New Deal was a series of programs, including, most notably, Social Security, that were enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. They included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term (1933–1937) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians refer to as the; Relief, Recovery, and Reform: relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.

The New Deal was good because it provided Americans with hope, jobs, and government assistance during a time when American citizens could not help themselves. The Great Depression caused the US to fall apart economically, and the New Deal was put in place to try to fix the economy. President Roosevelt thought this was the best way to fix the economy, and it was. But that doesn’t mean it was perfect. It also doesn’t mean it worked. While many good things came from the New Deal, many bad things came out as well. But the good outweighed the bad, and the New Deal began the journey out of the Great Depression.

In his inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the tone for the upcoming half century when he confidently said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. In response to the economic collapse of the Great Depression, a bold and highly experimental fleet of government bureaus and agencies known as Roosevelt’s Alphabet Soup were created to service the programs of the New Deal and to provide recovery to the American people. The New Deal was one of the most ambitious programs in American history, with implications and government programs that can still be seen to this day. Through its enactment of social reform and conservation programs, the New Deal mounted radical policies that gave the federal government unprecedented power in the nation’s economy and society, however, the New Deal did not bring America out of the Great Depression and could be considered conservative in the context of the era, ultimately saving capitalism from collapsing in America.

The New Deal was a specific set of government works programs put into effect by President Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal took action to bring fast economic relief as well as improvements in industry, finance, agriculture, housing, the labor force, etc. The traditional American policy of laissez-faire was opposed in the new democratic promise of the “New Deal”. The majority of the New Deal was enacted in the first couple months of FDR’s presidency, which later became known as the Hundred Days. The first objective was to lessen the hardship of the large amount of unemployed workers in the nation. The Works Progress Administration(WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) were created to establish short term government aid to temporary jobs. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created to develop rules to govern trade practices, hours, child labor, wages, and collective bargaining. Also, the New Deal worked to avoid another stock market crash and bank failures.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) gave insurance for bank deposits and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created to protect the people from stock-market companies committing fraud. An agricultural program , the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) attempted to raise prices by providing subsidies to farmers to reduce crop production. The New Deal was filled with government works programs to help pull the country out of the Great Depression but,

The New Deal was a necessary program out in place which helped the nation and expanded the role of the government in a positive way. The nation was struggling in effect of the Great Depression and going through a hard time, and the New Deal helped the country out of it. Alone, the citizens of the United States would have never been able to pull themselves out of this mess, but the government stepped in and helped to fix the nation. The benefits of the New Deal can best be summed up with the three R’s: relief, recovery, and reform.

Shortly after the Great Depression began, society began to fail quickly. The stock market crashed, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, business’ and banks were closing and people were losing their homes they had worked so hard for. Although President Hoover was attempting to help society, he believed that instead of governmental interventions you should be self-reliant and would not fund welfare programs that may incentivize not working. Hoover’s “attempts” to aide the economy were not enough to turn it around, and people began to set their sights on Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the oncoming election. FDR made it his goal to ensure relief, recovery and reform were provided for the country to counteract the Great Depression and to make up for all of the years of negligence and non interference from the government, collectively called the “New Deal” 15 major laws were created in just the first 100 days he was in office, and his “New Deal” was coming into fruition and the governments role was now to step in and take care of it’s people, and to neglect them no longer.

The New Deal was a series of programs created by the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, during a time of economic depression to help the poor and destitute people of the nation by creating jobs, providing economic recovery, helping restore damaged areas in the U.S., and much more.

Following the Great Depression, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, which aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans. Roosevelt’s New Deal permanently changed the federal government’s relationship to the U.S. populace for the New Deal was a revolutionary step towards the use of governmental power to address economic and social issues.

As a result of this, F.D.R. created the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) through the New Deal to help regulate farm prices by taking control of the surplus and “ensuring a profitable price”.(73Grapes) This program has one of the biggest impacts for recovery of the Great Depression during The First Hundred Days. The AAA controlled the supply of the 7 basic crops farmers grew: cotton, wheat, corn, rice, peanuts, milk, and tobacco. Never before had Congress made it a policy “...to balance supply and demand” for farmers, farm prices, and the purchases that farmers made.(AAA, the Agricultural Adjustment Act & Administration) Some farmers did not want to take the payments that the government gave the farmers to not grow any crops because they said the government “...[wasn't] going to tell [them]” what to do.(AAA, the Agricultural Adjustment Act & Administration) Today, about 5 million dollars go to farmers a year through other agriculture

The next step in FDRs New Deal is recovery. The objective of the National Recovery Administration was to create codes for businesses to follow. These codes would then help to provide minimum wages for employees, restrict the number of hours worked to prevent over time and set prices and production levels. The goal was to fix the American economy by limiting competition, rising power purchased by the consumer and hiring unemployed workers back to work for them once more. By mid-1933, the new agency achieved the voluntary acceptance by nearly 600 industries of new codes. The new codes covered nearly 30 million workers. One problem was that the chief administrator was chosen because of his well-known service in the WIB during World War I. Sadly,