Title: The New Deal Was a Good Idea, We Should Try it | History News  Network
Headings: The New Deal Was a Good Idea, We Should Try it
The New Deal Was a Good Idea, We Should Try it
More Comments:
Jonathan Dresner -  5/13/2009
Ruel J. Eskelsen -  5/13/2009
vaughn davis bornet -  5/5/2009
Maura Doherty -  5/5/2009

Content: The New Deal helped a lot of people survive and even live better. It also moved into citizenship large numbers of people previously excluded from any kind of state benefits. But its discriminatory practices also helped create the growing inequality on which today’s crisis rests. As we defend government activism, we also need to scrutinize closely what the New Deal did wrong, and to recognize that it did these wrong things on a grand scale. The most obvious example of category A is relief, including public jobs–what is today called “stimulus.” These were far and away the most popular of New Deal programs, especially the jobs, but they helped only a fraction of those who needed help. A few examples: The most generous program, the first one tried, known as Civil Works Administration, offered 4 million jobs to an acknowledged 10 million unemployed persons. Big cities had even higher proportions of those without help. For example, in NYC the CWA offered 125,000 jobs for 1.25 million unemployed.