Question

How effective was the New Deal in solving the problems associated with the Great Depression in the 1930s?

Answer 1

Since the late 1930s, popular wisdom has held that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" helped put the Great Depression to an end. The series of social and government spending programs has brought millions of Americans back to work on hundreds of public projects across the country. But in the 80 years since the Great Depression was formally declared in June 1938, historians and economists have continued to debate the true merits of the New Deal and whether radical government spending programs have actually brought an end to the biggest economic downturn in history.

The New Deal Roosevelt had vowed that the American people would begin to take shape immediately after its inauguration in March 1933. Centered on the premise that the strength of the federal government was required to get the nation out of the depression, the first days of Roosevelt 's administration saw the passage of banking reform legislation, disaster relief programs, job relief programs, and agricultural programs. Later, a second New Deal was to be created, including Union security services, the Social Security Act and programs to support tenant farmers and migrant workers. Many of the New Deal actions or organizations have come to be known by their acronyms.

For example, the Works Progress Administration was known as the WPA, while the Civil Conservation Corps was known as the CCC. Many people have remarked that the New Deal programs have reminded them of alphabet soup. The New Deal had run its course by 1939. In the short term, the New Deal services have helped to change the lives of people suffering from depression. In the longer term, the New Deal initiatives set a precedent for the federal government to play a central role in the economic and social affairs of the country.

The reforms put in place by New Deal, including encouraging the start of the labor movement, which fostered wage growth and sustained the purchasing power of millions of Americans, the establishment of social security and federal regulations imposed on the financial sector, as imperfect as they were, essentially ensured that there would be no further Great Depression after the 1930s. Such programs undoubtedly helped to end the Great Depression, "but the amount of government stimulus spending was not large enough Only World War II, with its demands for massive war production, which produced a lot of jobs, ended the depression.