Honors Blog

Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) was our 32nd president of the United States of America. FDR had a plan called the new deal which is equivalent to Obama's stimulus package. The new deal was filled with a lot of plans that would help the economy get out of its state of crisis. The new deal was the turning point for America because it helped stimulate the economy by ways such as creating work programs, and the birth of social security.

Work relief was a main factor that needed to be taken care of during that time. The new deal provied work programs that paid people "to do something socially useful,". A work program that provided a lot of work for people was the Civil Works Administration (CWA) which provided four million new jobs for Americans. The CWA "furnished a new weapon against unemployment and an important precendent for future relief programs". After the sucess of CWA, even more work programs were created. In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established. This program created jobs as well but combined is love for conservation and compassion of the youth. The CCC employed unmarried youth 18-25 and sent them to do Green Work (My way of saying jobs that help out the environment) such as planting tress, building parks, and fighting soil erosion. Another very effective program that is still carried on today is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a massive public works project program. Programs werent the only thing created during the New Deal. Another aspect of it was acts, specifically the Social Security Act.

The Social Security Act passed in 1935 "helped those who could not help themselves: the aged poor, the infirm, dependant children." This act "laid the groundwork for the modern welfare state." Social security acted more then just something that helped out the aged poor and etc, furthmore is helped stabalized the economy by "furnishing pensions for retirees and insurance for those suddenly laid off from their jobs." Social security acted as "a new social contract between the government and the people replaced the gospel, of self-help and the older policies of laissez faire." The hope for social security was that is it would " cover Americans "from cradle to grave."".

The New Deal was a very essential action plan important to the development and reconstruction of our economy. Everthing that came out of the New Deal was very effective because a lot of those programs are still implemented into today's society. For example social security. Overall the New deal left a legacy. Under the new deal changed the role of the federal government because the "government assumed a broader role in the economy than progressives had ever undetaken."