Monday, February 22, 2010

The New Deal- capitalist

Hello, my name is SarahBeth and I am a firm believer in capitalism. I am not very fond of Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal." Although the New Deal may have appeared to have helped the economy, it instead harmed the economy. Roosevelt created many different agencies such as the Emergency Banking Act, the Economy Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, The Resettlement Administration, Farm Security Administration, the Rural Electrification Act, and the National Industry Recovery Act. We all seem to remember their positive effects and we seem to overlook the negative effects. The Agricultural Adjustment Acthelped left out smaller farmers and only helped the majority of large farms. Also, the government had no authority to limit production, therefore it was unconstitutional and harmed farmers when they could not choose how much to produce. The limits on production also caused some unemployment. Farmers should be able to produce any number of goods they desire. Also, even though the National Industrial Recovery Act was meant to help the production of goods and increase consumerism, the industrial production actually declined. Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" also legalized alcohol and Roosevelt claimed to have gotten rid of the divised opinions about alcohol, however, the legalization of alcohol didnt help because people were still against it and began to create the 21st amendment as soon as it was legalized. The Federal Relief Administration and The Civil Works Administration provided only temporary jobs and not long term jobs. Roosevelt also approved the Tennesee Valley Authority which was supposed to revive the area, however, the Tennessee Valley continued to remain impoverished and despite the TVA, it didnt help local custums and prejudices. As you can see, the "New Deal" was corrupt, the agencies were not successful. It would have been better to leave the factors of production in the hands of private owners. The government should have not have interevened during The Great Depresstion because the economy would have eventually recovered on its own. I believe in Laissez-Faire, the economy was fine without goverment intervention. The "New Deal" did not even end the depression. The abundance of agencies and laws and in the increase of government power only furthered the depression. The economy would have recovered if the Government would have left the market to be free and had been patient enough to see that people can be successful without government intervention, and that government help can have many negative effects. The new deal did not do anything for me, it instead made my situation worse because there was so much concentrated power and the majority of people were harmed by it, if the first New Deal was not successful then we should not have created a second New Deal.