The New Deal Question

[Germ]

IN 1933 Unemployment was 25% by 1937 it has dropped to 10%. Did the new deal work? It dropped the the rate 15%? I did some research after hearing from some righties it did not, and some lefties it did.

It went back up in 37 does anyone know why?

[Fieldmouse]

No your numbers are way off from everything I've read. This is the shortest version summary yet. Please read it and then you tell me.

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/09/GreatMythsOfTheGreatDepression.pdf

[Arthur P]

From what I've read your figures are accurate. In 1937, responding to promptings from conservatives, Roosevelt pulled back the amount of spending on New Deal programs which ushered in a new recession. The economy hadn't recovered enough at that point to maintain itself. Yes, FDR did raise taxes in '37, but he had also raised taxes in 1935 and 1936 without the economy going into recession because gov't spending was still high. It was the sudden and drastic cut in spending that caused the recession of 37-38. The New Deal was working well till that point, but the cutback on gov't spending came too soon.

[Fieldmouse]

Lol arthur. Your links were very accurate.[:-]Not. FDR caused more problems then he sovled. His spending was a mess and his taxation of the wealthy that amounted to 90% of anything over 100K was a big mistake.

I've posted this question many times before on this board. Perhaps a liberal would want to answer this. How much money should someone be allowed to make?

How much money, percentage wise, of someone's paycheck should the government be allowed to take at gun point?

[nodog]

ORIGINAL: Germ

IN 1933 Unemployment was 25% by 1937 it has dropped to 10%. Did the new deal work? It dropped the the rate 15%? I did some research after hearing from some righties it did not, and some lefties it did.

It went back up in 37 does anyone know why?

First question is does a government deal ever work, depends on who's on the receiving end. Short answer no it never does, it just creates more problems and there were 2 new deals, one in 32 and one in 35. The one in 35 gave us an answer to your second question, the WPA employing nine million workers. I don't know the number but I believe the country had around 100 million people in it. Big percentage there. Many older people I"™ve talked to appreciated the help. I even use one of his wife"™s, Eleanor"™s contributions to help although I have no idea what the gov. paid for these toilets; She provided out house bases to the Appalachian people. She had visited them and was deeply moved by how hard the crash had hit them. They "œdidn"™t have a pot to pee in"�. I use one where I hunt.

"Reform rather than recovery was the keynote of the Second New Deal. Labor and the unemployed were it's chief beneficiaries, as bankers, businessman, and farmers had been of the First. It was immediately and continuously attacked, but it was popular with large blocks of voters and it carried FDR in triumph through the 1936 campaign."

!937 FDR was preparing the country for war. Everyone knew about Hitler. In 36 FDR took a tumble in popularity after the "COURT PACKING" incident. The new deal suffered and never recovered fully. Politics roled on.Just like here.

The governments job is to make sure that all it"™s people have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, a level playing field for all not a select few with the money to buy it. Hands off until it needs to speak soft but sternly and club people only when they need it. That"™s a good government, not going to happen. The way people and business are todaya good government would need so many clubs they'd have to cancel baseball.

[nodog]

Just some of the facts.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm

[Arthur P]

His spending was a mess and his taxation of the wealthy that amounted to 90% of anything over 100K was a big mistake.

Really? As usual your facts and logic are completely off base. As you will see, people with income of $100k were NEVER taxed 90% under FDR, and those 90% rates were not levied until near the end of WWII.

Top tax rates by year:

1929 = 25%
1930 = 25%
1931 = 25%

In 1932 new brackets were formed. Top tax bracket rose from income more than 100K to more than $1 million
1932 = 63%
1933 = 63%
1934 = 64%

1936 new tax brackets. Top tax rate from income over $1 million to over $5 million
1935 = 63%
1936 - 1940 = 79%
1941 = 81%

In 1942, we were at war. Top tax bracket dropped from income over $5 million to over $200K
1942 - 43 = 88%
1944 - 45 = 94%

Top tax rate remained at over 90% all the way through the post war boom years until LBJ lowered it to 77% in 1964, and then to 70% in 1965. It remained at 70% until Reagan chopped it to 50% in 1980 and tripled our federal deficit spending. Which is the very economic model that Bush used to double our national debt over the past 8 years.

[James B]

One big difference between then and now is that the War put everyone but to work but even more important was the fact that most everything we had was made here and people had the manufacturing jobs to go back to. We have shipped most of those jobs over seas and they are gone. Until we can turn that ship around, I see no real recovery that can last. Throwing a couple train loads of money around MAY or May Not get the economy moving but the fact will remain, we can't keep importing goods and exporting jobs. Any big spending by government trying to fix the economy will come back to bite the people that have to pay that debt back or at some point, inflation like we have never seen it going to find us.

[Arthur P]

I agree with you completely, James, but we're not going to turn that around without some serious arm twisting of the companies that have sent their manufacturing offshore to bring those jobs back. The free-marketers will be screaming bloody murder if we do that though.

[falcon]

One big difference between then and now is that the War put everyone but to work but even more important was the fact that most everything we had was made here and people had the manufacturing jobs to go back to. We have shipped most of those jobs over seas and they are gone. Until we can turn that ship around, I see no real recovery that can last.

+1

No civilian automobiles were made after early 1942. Very few major household appliance were made during WWII. Whenproduction started upafter the war, the economy boomed and returning troops had jobs.

The putrid politicians in DC have really put this country in a bind with their export of US jobs to China. Now the US does not have the industrial base required to sustain a protracted war. He11, the US Army had a hard time finding a US company to manufacture combat boots.

Remember what Ross Perot said about the giant sucking sound and his statement that folks who do not make money cannot buy anything.US citizens are now the folks who cannot buy anything.

To those of you who have been putting Toyota forward as a shining example of everything good: Toyota has announced that it will have a first quarter loss of about 3.5 billion dollars.