Essay on Social, Economic, and Political Failures: The New Deal

Submitted By leoabc4243
Words: 1440
Pages: 6

History Projects Handouts

The New Deal was at the very least a partial failure and in the process let many Americans down! Social Failures:
1.) Jobs created by programs such as the CCC only lasted for Six Months suggesting that the New deal didn’t really created jobs, what it does is only created temporary jobs which can’t solve long term problems
2.) The work of the AAA made the lives of Black farmers significantly worse and increased unemployment in agriculture because F.D.R wants to increase farm prices by decreasing the supply. In addition, blacks were among the 100 million consumers forced to pay higher food prices because of the AAA.
More bad things about the AAA:
AAA was deemed constitutional as it simply paid farmers to plant non-consumable plants like alfalfa instead of paying them just to leave their fields fallow. While the AAA was beneficial to the agricultural sector, it did disproportionally benefit larger farmers and food processors.
3.) The New Deal did nothing to introduce Civil Rights or tackle racism and discrimination in the USA and segregation in South.
4.) Although the TVA seems to be a good deal, it flooded an estimated 730,000 acres of land behind its dams, and 15,654 people were forced out of their homes. Farm owners received cash settlements for their condemned property. But tenant farmers, a substantial number of whom were black, got nothing.
5.) The NRA was nick named the “Negro Run Around”. Some of its codes like the minimum wage led to many black people losing their jobs as employers preferred to take on white workers.
THE Native Americans
Native Americans were largely unsupported or even harmed by the New Deal(for instance: the New Deal failed to weaken large organisations who tried to take their land, native Americans were often given poor-quality land, the New Deal failed to preserve their languages, culture and beliefs, which have now disappeared

Economic failures:
1.) The New Deal did not end the Great Depression; it only provided relief during the worst days of that dark time. As the Graph has shown, unemployment rate remained at the highest rate in the American history starting from 1890 to 2010.
2.) National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 made it illegal for employers to hire people who weren’t worth the minimum because they lacked skills. As a result, about 500,000 blacks, particularly in the South, were estimated to have lost their jobs.

Political Failure: women’s political status was also largely unchanged many New Deal organisations tried to avoid paying to women by creating qualifications or conditions, this also shows Roosevelt had little control over the many organisations’ leaders organisations such as the CCC and PWA excluded women, the only woman to achieve high status was FDR’s own WIFE Frances Perkins was ignored by her colleagues and accused of being a Jew and a Soviet spy, this also shows the New Deal failed to change racist, sexist, anti-communist and anti-Semitic views in the USA trade unions were disappointed by the New Deal many of the largest organisations - eg: Ford, General Motors – either ignored unions or employed private thugs to break up demonstrations, some even sacked if workers belonged to a union the many strikes hindered recovery Ford refused to accept unions until 1942 (in the war) the New Deal also failed to challenge many industrialists’ racist and right-wing views, eg: Ford supported Hitler and sent him a large sum of money on each birthday the New Deal did little to help immigrants the New Deal certainly failed to create a “melting pot”, as many immigrants from countries such as Poland, Mexico and China remained in separate groups and were usually poorer than western-European Americans, it also did little to reduce racism or anti-communism Many New Deal organisations discriminated against immigrants Roosevelt failed to weaken groups such as the KKK
Other Failure
The jobs