The new deal and its most essential characteristic features

The year is 1929. You have just been fired because the company you worked for went bankrupt and was forced to close. You wait in long lines every day at the soup kitchen in order to get food. You try to look for work, but unemployment is so high you are unable to find any work. There is no place you can go to help get you back up on your feet. Fast forward to 2018, you get laid off from your job. You go to the unemployment agency and they send you a check to help you stay out of poverty while you look for a new job. This is a perfect example of how something called the New Deal helps Americans.

Development and Implementation

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected into office, he wanted to help the economy. The American economy was still struggling to recover from the Great Depression. The New Deal programs were Roosevelt’s attempt to initiate an economic boost. Within his first one hundred days of office, he implemented 15 New Deal programs (History. com, 2009).

Significance

The New Deal programs were significant because they redefined the American government’s relationship with its citizens. President Hoover, who had been the president during the Great Depression, believed that it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to help the country out of the depression. He believed that the economy would ultimately fix itself. The programs proposed by Roosevelt were innovative.

Key Objectives

The first main goal of these programs was economic relief. This means to ease the pain of poverty by helping people get food or other necessities. The second goal was economic recovery. Economic recovery is working to get the economy back into good shape by helping people get jobs, find ways to raise the country’s GDP, and find ways to keep unemployment down. The third economic goal was reform. Roosevelt wanted to change the way the government handled national economic depression and recession. (Koren, 2015).

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

This agency focused on providing jobs for the unemployed. Single men between the ages of 18 and 25 were given jobs in places like forests and parks. The men received 30 dollars a month which they were allowed to send home to their families to help out if they wanted. They also received housing, clothing, and training for their work.

Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)

The New Deal program’s goal was to offer immediate relief. This relief was directed to those who were unemployed, and the relief included money.

Social Security Act (SSA)

The Social Security Act is meant to provide financial security for certain groups of individuals. These individuals include elderly people and handicapped. These people are sent monthly checks to compensate for their old age and/or disability. This program also provides pension systems for state-run unemployment insurance programs.

National Industry Recovery Act (NIRA)

The purpose of NIRA was to regulate working conditions. This act set production limits/ quotas. It also set a price range for goods. NIRA also gave more power to workers’ unions.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

The PWA’s intentions were to provide work for public works projects. These projects included auditoriums, schools, bridges, a deep-water port, and two aircraft carriers.

New Deal Flaws

While most people were helped by the New Deal, there were a few that were not helped as much. One group of people that minimally benefitted from the New Deal were minorities such as Mexican Americans and African Americans. Another group of people that were hurt were the farm workers. The Agricultural Adjustment Act gave farm owners money to not produce as much which meant that the farms didn’t need as many workers anymore (Dobbs, 2017).

Conclusion

Even though the New Deal was put into effect 85 years ago, it still has an impact on today’s American society. Many of the New Deal programs are still around such as the SSA, TVA, FDIC, and many more. These programs help the American economy, no matter what condition it is in. The New Deal helped shape today’s American government.