Title: Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression? - HISTORY
Headings: Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression?
Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression?
Many New Deal programs established critical economic safeguards.
The modern labor movement was born out of New Deal initiatives.
But New Deal programs alone weren’t enough to end the Great Depression.
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Content: “The reforms put in place by New Deal, including encouraging the beginning of the labor movement, which fostered wage growth and sustained the purchasing power of millions of Americans, the establishment of Social Security and the federal regulations imposed on the financial industry, as imperfect as they were, essentially ensured there wouldn’t be another Great Depression after the 1930s,” says Nelson Lichtenstein, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “And there hasn’t been. We’ve had a few close calls, but nothing like the Great Depression,” he says. But, just because the United States hasn’t repeated the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression doesn’t mean the programs of the New Deal can take all the credit. Other factors were also at play—including the onset of a major world war. “ It really could be argued World War II, which ultimately lowered unemployment and increased GNP through weapons production really played a much bigger role,” Lichtenstein says. Still, as Dr. Lichtenstein notes, several programs created through the New Deal did have a lasting positive impact on the U.S. economy which was flagging throughout the 1930s, among them the Social Security Act, which provided income for the elderly, disabled and children of poor families. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which effectively insured the savings of Americans in the event of a bank failure, which was all too common at the time. The modern labor movement was born out of New Deal initiatives. In addition, Lichtenstein notes, the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 was enacted to foster “fair competition” through the fixing of prices and wages and the establishment of production quotas, among other measures.