Was The New Deal A Success Or Failure Essay

Was the New Deal a success or a failure

The Great Depression was a most severe economic downturn in the country. The first long term cause of the depression was agriculture. This caused the depression because farmers over-produced during World War 1 in order to feed Europe for their large demand of money, but the prices of those crops dropped 40% after the war. Farmers lost their farms and the banks can’t get back the money that they loaned to them. The second reason that caused the depression was buying on margin. People buy a share with only a 10% deposit and banks loaned people the rest of the 90%, this led to the depression because lots of people buying on margin but they don’t have the ability to settle the debt. This lead to the collapse of the stock market which triggered the great depression. In 1928, Hoover was elected president. He believed advocated for rugged individualism, which was people should succeed through their own efforts and take care of their own families without government handout. He also pushed for voluntary cooperation, which was people working together to

help others. Finally, Hoover believed that economy has nature cycle, which meant that the economy will go up soon after it went down, so, Hoover do nothing with it and wait for it to go up again. In 1932, FDR get elected and he acted quickly to try to end the depression. The government instituted lots of laws and programs which known as the New Deal. The New Deal was a failure because of the high unemployment rate, the great amount of government debt and the racist problem.
The New Deal was a failure because the unemployment rate was still high after the release of the New Deal. According to document 5, the unemployment rate was 20.6% and it went down a little bit to 9.1% in 1937, however, it went back up to 12.5% in 1939. More specifically, it says that the New Deal just provided jobs to a few people and most of the unemployed didn’t get a job. Also, those jobs that provided by the government were only temporary because the unemployment rate went back up later which means people lost their jobs again. This proves the New Deal was a failure because it didn’t help much of the unemployment problem and the jobs provided doesn’t last long. In addition, document 2 shows businesses were required to raise labor wages and shorter hours which caused the businesses struggle to earn a profit. As businesses collapsed, labor will lost their jobs again and this won’t help people to get a long-lasting job. This proves the New Deal was a failure because the New Deal failed to help people get a job and it causes businesses to collapse.
The New Deal was a failure because the programs of the New Deal are costly and it spend more than the amount that the government can afford.

The program FERA was a relief program meant to send money directly to families. More specifically, it only giving out money and it won’t help the economy because people won’t go to work if the government keep providing relief to them. This proves the New deal was a failure because the program only sent money to families but it is not a long-term solution. The program, Public Works Admin was a relief program meant to provide public jobs to unemployed people. More specifically, those public jobs included constructing roads and bridges can be considered as “making jobs”. This proves the New Deal was a failure because it will increase the government expenditure and the jobs provided were only temporary which means people would lost their jobs

again.
However, some will argue that the New Deal was a success because millions of people received financial relief and got a job. According to document 1, “It gave teenagers a chance to work for pay… It gave my mother relief from my necessary demands for money”, it shows that the National Youth Administration helped providing jobs for teens to make sure they no need to ask their parents for money. This shows the New Deal was a success because it provided jobs to people. According to document 6, “One million undernourished children have benefited by the “Works Progress Administration’s school lunch program”, it shows that the Works Progress Administration helped providing nourished lunch and jobs to students and women. This shows the New Deal was a success because it gave relief to the needy and provide jobs for them. Even though these documents show that people were benefited by the New Deal, it was still a failure because these programs would increase government debt and some of those programs like Federal Housing Authority, refused to guarantee mortgages for blacks who tried to buy in white neighborhoods can be considered as discriminated against blacks.
The New Deal, at the end, was a failure because of the jobs provided were just temporary, those programs were costly and many of the New Deal programs were discriminated against blacks. Hoover believed in rugged individualism while FDR believed in a “Try anything” approach. The Federal government should always work like what FDR did because the “try anything” attitude gives people confidence while facing challenges.