Propaganda During The Great Depression (WWII, war, general, 1930s)
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The article speaks for itself. Some wished the Great Depression to continue in order to achieve their political goals. These specifically selected photographs may have helped them.
It's well to recall that the Great Depression became worse and worse as the years passed. This allowed the Roosevelt administration to introduce increasingly intrusive laws and policies.
I still believe it took WWII to lift us out of the depression. Suddenly we had 100% employment and sales of our goods.
Very true considering FDR's crazy policies were not working.
FDR's reaction to the Depression is remembered well because it left us with some outstanding physical monuments (Red Rocks, Jones Beach, etc), great art (WPA images), and positive images of previously unemployed men doing nice things like planting trees. All well and good.
However, a closer look reveals an array of insane regulations that would find a home in places like Cuba. Instead of allowing the economy to heal itself with some government intervention- a tactic that has always worked- government became the economy.
But as you correctly pointed out, WWII made it all moot.
Seriously. So you would be ok with no social security in you old age. FDIC to protect your bank accounts. Minimum wage laws. Without his intervention there would have been a major banking collapse that would have wiped out the savings of millions of Americans. And then there was his leadership after Pearl Harbor to destroy the malignant threat of Nazism and Japanese imperialism. Revisionist history.
Seriously. So you would be ok with no social security in you old age. FDIC to protect your bank accounts. Minimum wage laws. Without his intervention there would have been a major banking collapse that would have wiped out the savings of millions of Americans. And then there was his leadership after Pearl Harbor to destroy the malignant threat of Nazism and Japanese imperialism. Revisionist history.
Not to mention a lack of regulation contributed greatly to the stock market collapse that triggered the Depression. Unregulated monetary policies aren't necessarily a good thing, as has been proven at least twice in recent decades.
It's well to recall that the Great Depression became worse and worse as the years passed. This allowed the Roosevelt administration to introduce increasingly intrusive laws and policies.
The Great Depression did not become 'worse and worse' during the Roosevelt years.
Unemployment peaked in 1933, the year FDR took office. If decreased thereafter, with the exception of a blip upward in 1938 as a result of the 1937-38 recession. Per capita GDP also bottomed out in 1933, increasing every year after - again, with the exception of blip downward in 1938. Things got 'worse and worse' until 1933. From there on, there was growth and decreasing unemployment.
And the problem was the administration doing too little, not too much. The brief 1938 regression was due to curbing deficit spending and the balancing of the budget. Subsequently, the budget-balancing was abandoned, a massive spending bill was passed, and the economy resumed growing.
The ramping up in preparation for the war accelerated the recovery but it did not cause it. Basically, it was a massive public works project that the usual suspects politically could not sabotage in pursuit of the balanced budget fantasies.
Not to mention a lack of regulation contributed greatly to the stock market collapse that triggered the Depression. Unregulated monetary policies aren't necessarily a good thing, as has been proven at least twice in recent decades.
Agreed and various financial entities will look for any variety of ways outside of regulations to acellerate their returns, and it continues to this day. I cringe when I hear of roll backs in financial regulations.
The article speaks for itself. Some wished the Great Depression to continue in order to achieve their political goals. These specifically selected photographs may have helped them.
It's well to recall that the Great Depression became worse and worse as the years passed. This allowed the Roosevelt administration to introduce increasingly intrusive laws and policies.
The employment picture improved steadily under the New Deal until 1937. At that point, FDR and his people got talked into raising taxes and trying to balance the budget. This precipitated another jolt to the economy. However, the error was realized and the economy slowly rebounded. In 1933, unemployment was about 30%. By 1940, it was about 10%. The economy was still anemic in 1940, but it was much better than it had been.
I have written much before about the Great Depression. However, the principle problem was poor understanding of the way that the economy worked. This interfered with putting together the correct policy prescription to aid recovery. John Maynard Keynes would not his book The General Theory until 1946. However, what was finally determined was that the key to economic recovery in a recession/depression is deficit spending. The government has to be willing to run deficits over a period of years to generate economic growth. World War II was the final proof of that. Virtually, over night our economy went from 8% unemployment in 1941 to less than three percent unemployment during the war years. The GDP grew by leaps and bounds.
There is a legitimate criticism to be made of the Roosevelt Administration in terms of regulation. Some of this regulation probably held back economic growth and recovery. Yet, who would seriously argue against programs like federal deposit insurance for bank accounts, regulation of dishonest security markets, or of monopolistic public utilities? Laws regulating these industries were introduced precisely because of abuses that lead and contributed to the Great Depression. Nor, would many people give up Social Security which was introduced by FDR around 1937.
The New Deal was an imperfect solution for the Great Depression, but it was much better than no solution at all. Even if it hampered economic recovery it may have provided something more important: jobs and cash benefits for people who were literally hungry because jobs were unavailable.
Very true considering FDR's crazy policies were not working.
FDR's reaction to the Depression is remembered well because it left us with some outstanding physical monuments (Red Rocks, Jones Beach, etc), great art (WPA images), and positive images of previously unemployed men doing nice things like planting trees. All well and good.
However, a closer look reveals an array of insane regulations that would find a home in places like Cuba. Instead of allowing the economy to heal itself with some government intervention- a tactic that has always worked- government became the economy.
But as you correctly pointed out, WWII made it all moot.
Not to go off topic but Jones Beach was not created by FDR and the Federal government during the Depression. It was created by Robert Moses and New York State in the 1920s.
Anyway, as others have said, today we take for granted reforms like Social Security and FDIC. What the Roosevelt administration was trying to do in the 1930s was all new. Of course there were mistakes but there were also successes.
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