American citizen’s living standards improved by 1936 due to the election of Franklin Roosevelt and the Revenue Act. However, most people were still struggling in 1936 due to unemployment. President Hoover didn’t really act to subside the suffering of Americans in the early years of the Great Depression. So, having Franklin Roosevelt elected as president had to be the answer.
He promised the ‘New Deal’ to all Americans which ultimately was true. He wanted to be able to regulate businesses and aid farmers with the hard depression. He did this by making all banks close momentarily and issue new money. As a result, this made withdrawals a lot easier since people who had saved money were left with nothing since banks ran out of cash. Even though the industrial revolution helped immensely with agriculture, it did result in overproduction of products leaving farmers with little to no income. An example of how Roosevelt was able to help farmers was through the Agricultural Adjustment Act. This helped for farmers to be paid with subsidies so that overproduction of crops can reduce. In addition, Roosevelt was able to push for social security and welfare for poor citizens. This improved the lives of retired citizens and the many who were unemployed to gain benefits. Overall, the many acts Roosevelt passed to live up to his New Deal to help reestablish the economy, is why the lives of many Americans were able to improve by 1936.
In addition, the Revenue Act of 1935 helped to improve the lives of many to regulate how much tax they were paying based on annual income. This was simply just the more money you brought back home, the more tax you would have to pay. This was beneficial so homes with less income wouldn’t be bombarded with taxes they couldn’t pay. Because of that, larger companies were held accountable and had to be put into the stock market to manage investments. Living standards improved by 1936 because this made the economic system fairer across the board for everyone and helped to regulate banks giving citizens the satisfaction of knowing how and where their money was being utilized.
On the other hand, even though many acts were passed and the lives of some Americans improved economically, there was still a major issue: unemployment. The Americans who still didn’t have work in 1936 when Roosevelt was reelected, didn’t improve one bit from before. Even some farmers who lived in the mid-west couldn’t work due to drought storms known as the Dust Bowl. Even though Roosevelt had many impressive policies, they were very erratic and inconsistent when they were known to the public. As a result, it seemed that most of these policies aided nationally, not so much locally leaving people still living in poverty.
In conclusion, the Great Depression was a hard time for Americans and significantly helped with the perseverance of Franklin Roosevelt. Even though problems still lingered later on, Franklin was able to greatly ease the headache of the Depression for many. He was able to implement reforms to regulate the economy as to why American citizens' standard of living did improve by 1936.