Estudiante

U.S. assignment
I have chosen to write the essay about the New Deal. In the following there will be a brief sum up of the New Deal, there will be mentioned and described some programs implemented in the period that have changed America in many different ways, and there will discussed its effects. The question about the New Deal’s extend and reverse will be taking care of at the end, wherepresidents as Nixon, Johnson and Obama would be mentioned.
Discuss the effects of the New Deal on American politics and society.
In which respects was the New Deal extended or reversed in subsequent decades?
The New Deal is a series of economic programs implemented in the US between 1933 and 1936, and it was FDR’s response to the Great Depression. The idea behind the New Deal was the “3 Rs”, namelyrecovery from the Great Depression, relief for the unemployed etc. and reform to prevent depression in the future. The New Deal, nevertheless, was not just a series of economic programs - it also represented very important changes in American politics and society.
Before revealing the changes and the effects the New Deal had on politics and society, I will mention a few of the launched programs.The most important program was the Social Security Act, which offered a welfare system with benefits for the poor families and it offered retirement pensions and unemployment insurance as well. Other very great and lasting achievements were the Housing Act, the Wagner Act, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Revenue Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. I have mentioned these programsspecifically because facts show their great impact on America politically and socially.
The Housing Act e.g. has increased the number of Americans who own houses, and the Rural Electrification Administration helped develop the South. Meanwhile the Revenue Act, which sought to undue income inequality, is one of the main factors to why this period had the greatest economic growth in US history. Thatis, the middleclass was in its highest and incomes were more evenly distributed. The Wagner Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act were also very significant programs from the New Deal. The Wagner Act made it possible for workers to bargain collectively, and the Fair Labor Standards Act established for the first time minimum wages and maximum hour rules. This meant that the workers had more rights.It was a great accomplishment. Furthermore, some very important economic regulations were made by the government.
Consequently, the New Deal definitely represented an important shift in politics and society in the US. The New Deal marked the beginning of social programs, which gave the society so many more options and it restored hope for much of the population. The population felt moreprotected by the benefits from the Social Security Act, and by the rights and the increased political power the workers had gained.
These different rights, for the benefitting of the workers, added a more competitive life in both politics and economics, as the workers now were able to press their demands upon the companies and the government in ways that had not been an option before. Seen from the viewof American individuals then the worker’s gains were positive, but seen from the view of the companies it might have been negative. The companies would argue that this type of federal regulation, plus the taxation programs, would weaken the business and steal the focus from the competition and development of the companies to human resources, which finally in the long-run would slow the economicgrowth. This effect-theory might be right in connection with the following recession in 1937, where a decline in industrial production and increasing unemployment were the issues. Nevertheless, the period of the greatest economic growth, according to the article “For Richer by Paul Krugman”, was in the period of the New Deal, where the incomes were more evenly distributed. This economic growth...