The Great Dpression
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topped, but did not reverse the terrible effects of the Great Depression on America. As is evident in Document J, not until World War II did unemployment drop below 20%. Although the WPA, or the New Deal, for that matter, did not end the depression, it did create an entirely new role for the government. Because the WPA hired not only manual laborers but musicians, artists, and skilled craftsmen, it set the precedent that the government would be responsible for helping all people in times of trouble. The WPA also employed African-Americans, and because of that, “the government has taken on meaning and substance for the Negro masses.(Document I)” The WPA may not have ended unemployment, but it slowed the depression and created a government that was now expected by all people, both black and white, to provide relief during times of economic trouble.
The government also created its new, controversial social security program. Social security was the idea that anyone receiving a paycheck would receive “a monthly check” every month “for the rest of your lifebeginning when you are (Document E).” This is yet another example of the government providing insurance for those suffering economic troubles. This check guarantees an income for elderly people unable to work in many cases, and is exactly what it is named, security. The social security program further defined the governments new role as an insurer of the public welfare. However,it was considered so revolutionary and redefining that it sparked extreme debate.
Some claimed that “the authority of the federal government may not be pushed to such an extreme (Document F).” Others claimed that the “governmenthas also been strengthened and renovated (Document H).” Some went as far as to say that “the Administration at Washington is accelerating its [sic] pace towards socialism and communism (Document B).” The controversy surrounding many of the New Deal policies helped reshape the government in such a radical manner, as today it provides us with social security and is looked to for relief when economic disaster strikes.The AAA was a major part of the New Deal for many Americans. It was a system that promoted reduction of crop sizes among mostly Midwestern farmers. The government, through taxes levied on food processors, paid farmers to leave land idle, thus reducing overall production, eliminating overproduction and creating a system of virtual parity.
This system lessened the effects of the Great Depression on farmers, as it slowed and stopped, in many cases, the overproduction that was crThe New Deal Halting the Depression and Creating a Government Obligated
to Provide Security. F.D.R.s response to the Great Depression was his revolutionary New
Deal, which was a series of programs that halted the