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Did Franklin Roosevelt's policies prolong the great depression?
Or did they improve things? I'm not here saying he hurt the country. I don't know enough about economics to really judge. So that is why I'm asking this question. I'd like to know because some experts are predicting a 1 in 5 chance we could be heading for another depression, and I'd like to know which policies are best for getting out of a depression.
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Another depression? Highly unlikely. The conditions just don't exist.
I am not knowledgeable enough on FDR's policies.For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence) -
Mostly economics tend to themselves. Some presidents just have good or bad fortune to live during certain economic times.
What was important for Roosevelt is that he LOOKED like he was trying to do something about it. Kind of like how Bush is trying to do something but not really getting anywhere doing it.Comment
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No, his policies were far short of what was needed obviously, but he did hold the nation together during the crisis.I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
- Justice Brett KavanaughComment
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His policies helped alleviate the human toll, but I have my doubts about whether his policies made much economic impact overall.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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I don't look at FDR for his "achievements" during the 30s.. I don't think they were that great. I mostly recognize him for his war leadership.For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)Comment
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a big policy of his was to put people to work by having them work for the goverment. I'm curious how the goverment could afford to pay people to work. How high were the taxes? Were the rich taxed a very high amount?
There was a fascist movement during his early presidency. There was even talk of overthrowing the goverment.Comment
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Yes, he raised taxes, but there were deficits too. The goverment borrows money to fund deficits. He should have spent even more money on his programs-about what was spent on the war build up.Originally posted by Dissident
a big policy of his was to put people to work by having them work for the goverment. I'm curious how the goverment could afford to pay people to work.
How high were the taxes? Were the rich taxed a very high amount?I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
- Justice Brett KavanaughComment
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His programs were certainly unconstitutional, and were regularly struck down until he threatened to "pack the Court". At this point, the Justices began to rule his way in order to at least somewhat protect the integrity of the Court.Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DaveDaDouche
Read my seldom updated blog where I talk to myself: http://davedadouche.blogspot.com/Comment
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Yes, his policies prolonged the Depression. Diverting resources from productive endeavors doesn't help an economy. Just look at Japan's attempts to pull out of it's decade long slump.Comment
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Lack of resources was not a problem.Originally posted by Berzerker
Yes, his policies prolonged the Depression. Diverting resources from productive endeavors doesn't help an economy. Just look at Japan's attempts to pull out of it's decade long slump.I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
- Justice Brett KavanaughComment
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Yes I'm also looking at Japan's economy. This is why I feel we have a decent chance of ourselves hitting a depression. So I'm trying to look at what the U.S. did in the 30's and what Japan is doing now. Japan's economy is a bit different from the U.S.'s though. I think Japan's depression more closely resembles the U.s. in the 30's than the U.S. now. The main difference is the manufacturing aspect of the Japanese economy is much higher than in the U.S. at least with regards to per capita.Comment
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Not putting up tarriffs would have ended the depression much soonerSpace is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
Douglas Adams (Influential author)Comment
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In what way does the Japanese economy now resemble the US economy in the 30s? Are the unemployment rates similar? Is there extensive excess capacity in Japan as there was in the US. Did the US government bail out banks like the Japanese government? Did the US government do as much deficit spending as the Japanese have?Originally posted by Dissident
Yes I'm also looking at Japan's economy. This is why I feel we have a decent chance of ourselves hitting a depression. So I'm trying to look at what the U.S. did in the 30's and what Japan is doing now. Japan's economy is a bit different from the U.S.'s though. I think Japan's depression more closely resembles the U.s. in the 30's than the U.S. now. The main difference is the manufacturing aspect of the Japanese economy is much higher than in the U.S. at least with regards to per capita.
As for your question, which of FDR's policies do you think hurt the US economy during the 30s?Golfing since 67Comment
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It depends on your economic viewpoint - Keynesians would say that FDR did the right thing and singlehandedly pulled the country out of the Depression, monetarists would say that FDR did more harm than good...
I'm in the middle ground, myself. I think that FDR's tax-and-spend job-creation initiatives did indeed help alleviate the Depression by increasing the number of incomes earned and thus the flow of income, but using similar tax-and-spend policies during a period of economic prosperity would be inadvisable - it would push the economy into an unsustainable boom that burns quickly, but burns out fast."Love the earth and sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown . . . reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency" - Walt WhitmanComment
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