The federal emergency relief administration was set up to help the sick and poor instantly. This help was needed because at that time Americans needed help because they were in an economic depression. This helped the American public get back on its feet during the time of the depression.
The fireside chats were used by Roosevelt to connect with ordinary people and put up their spirits. This 60 million people used to listen to these chats; these chats enabled Roosevelt to get his views across to the American public. This is because many Americans were worried about the depression and Roosevelt gave them advice, which in turn gave the American public hope. This can be seen as a major factor for making the new deal a success because Roosevelt’s speech gave ordinary people hope.
Also Roosevelt introduced the Tennessee Valley Authority. This was set up in an area where people were most hit by the depression. The reason for why it was set up here was because this area had a lot of physical problems. As in the wet season the Tennessee River would over flow, which would lead to a flood in that area. Therefore due to this, the government decided to build a series of dams on the Tennessee River. This provided electricity for under developed areas using hydroelectric schemes. This also created thousands of jobs in an area, which was badly hit by the depression. The main positive knock on affect was that this organisation provided thousands of jobs and surely if it created thousands of jobs for the area worst hit with the depression then this organisation was surely a success of the New Deal. Although this was seen as a long term affect because jobs would be created, but not everyone would have a job because there maybe not enough jobs created. This is why it has to be considered as a long term affect because in the future people will demand more electricity as result you will have to expand the T.V.A by doing this will need to employ more people. This was a success of the new deal, but we still need to take in consideration that this success was planned as a long term success because jobs would be created, but in the future more jobs would be created because people may demand more electricity as a result the T.V.A will need to be expanded and more jobs will be created.
National Recovery Administration was also a success of the new deal because it improved working conditions and outlawed child labour. Surely if their was less child labour then the American could have a healthy young generation, which could lead to a good army and a better workforce because this made conditions better for the American children therefore they were much healthier. If you’re a lot healthier than before then surely you will become a more efficient labour and this should enable firms to increase output, if this is the case then the American should come out of the New Deal because the economy will be growing. If this happens unemployment will decrease and American output should increase. This is why this organisation needs to be seen as a success of the new deal.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration was set up to improve the long-term problem faced by the farmers. This organisation set quotas to reduce production, so therefore in the near future this would enable the prices of food to go up using the supply and demand theory. This would also cause profits to hit a record a high because, the farmers would now be getting double amount of money that they used to. This organisation was introduced to get the American agriculture industry back on its feet. This is because this organisation aim was to increase farmers income, which would gradually, improved farmer’s profits and therefore this enabled farmers to modernise their technology used in their farming. I.e. (using all resources efficiently to increase optimum output.) This is another organisation, which can be classified as a success of the new deal because this organisation improved conditions for farmers.
Another reason for why this was a success is that the amount produced increased because of the new machinery brought by the farmers using their extra revenue.
Many people argue that the new deal was not a success because they argue that production went up because the American economy was recovering anyway. They also argue that if the first New Deal were a success then Roosevelt would not have introduced the second new deal.
If the new deal had not been produced then the Americans would release more harmful gases into the atmosphere. Due to Roosevelt decision for making the Tennessee Valley Authority made, this allowed him to make America use more renewable energy than non-renewable. Producing this it has made America produce less harmful gases. If this had not been made then America would produce more harmful gases to the atmosphere.
If we look at the first New Deal and compare it to the second New Deal, we will
Realise hat the second New Deal was introduced to make the first New Deal better. This is because the first New Deal had policies, which created jobs and helped the American economy to recover. Due to the first New Deal being a success Roosevelt was able to introduce policies such as the Wagner Act and the Social Security Act. These two acts were introduced because Roosevelt wanted to improve living standards. This is because the Wagner act allowed workers to join trade unions, which enabled workers to get a better pay and receive better working conditions. Surely if workers get a better pay then the worker will be able to enjoy a better life. The Social Security Act allowed workers to think about the future because it allowed workers to save money for a pension. If this was the case then the living standard for the working would be ideal in the future because once this workforce has retired they will have a sum of money guaranteed, which will enable them to enjoy life. This is why the second New Deal was introduced because it wanted to make the first New Deal better.
The new deal may not have been success or a failure because some of the political opponents to Roosevelt argued that he did not do enough in the new deal and other argued that he wasted money in the new deal. If we look at the successes of the new deal we will realise that there are more successes than failures. Therefore I could now make the assumption that the new deal was a success, but political opponents argued because they thought that Roosevelt was wasting money and also they wanted his popularity to go down with the American public. Although people may have argued that America would recover from the depression even if there was no new deal, because in 1932 output rose in the U.S economy, therefore people assumed this. Their has been no consideration of the affects of the new deal this is because the new deal created jobs, if people are working they will be producing things, this means that they will be increasing output if this is the case then you must say that the economic recovery happened because of the new deal.
By looking at the first New Deal and the second New Deal we will realise that unemployment did go down during this time, but it went down even more when world war two was taking place. This is the case because jobs were created in the army therefore employment increased, due to this weapons were needed and this created more jobs. If we put these two points together you will see that America was starting to recover anyway. By looking at these points it could be said that having the New Deal’s it was a waste of money because the American economy was recovering itself.
Some people did not benefit as much as others by the New Deal. These were people were black people. These people didn’t receive much help because farms were being provided with new technology and due to this they no longer needed labour and mostly the labour force in American farms was mostly black people and these people lost their jobs and if they lost their jobs they would lose their source of income so they would see their living standards fall. In the new deal there was no such policy that gave black people their jobs back. Also women were not helped by the New Deal because there was no specific policy, which was aimed at women. By introducing the second New Deal it was thought that these people would be helped.
Also there were some people like Huey Long who thought that Roosevelt didn’t do enough. This again could be another reason for why Roosevelt introduced the second New Deal because he thought that by doing he would prove his critics wrong and that he would get more public support by helping the American public more.
However there were still some people who thought that Roosevelt was wasting money because these people were the political opposition to Roosevelt’s government and they tried to give him a bad name, in theory they wanted Roosevelt to become less popular with the American public.
By looking at both arguments I could conclude that the first new deal was a success because it helped Americans recover from the depression and it saved their saving and it enabled Americans to get back to work. The second new deal was introduced to make the first new deal better. I say this because the second new deal had policies such as the Wagner Act and The Social Security Act. These acts helped employees; if Roosevelt did not create jobs then he would not have been able to make the policies because these policies in the second new deal required jobs.
This is why I fairly disagree with the statement of the new deal not being a complete success because if we look back we will realise that it enabled Americans to get back to work and the second new deal gave employees a greater options because it enabled them to save for pensions and to get a wage increase according to inflation. This is why I disagree with the statement of the new deal not being a complete success.