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FDR's New Deal 6360 Views
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Description:
Deal or no deal? FDR's New Deal provided hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public sector to bring the economy out of the Great Depression. It was all about the three R's: Relief, Reform, and Recovery.
Transcript
- 00:07
The New Deal, a la Shmoop.
- 00:12
No, no, no. NEW… DEAL.
- 00:15
The Great Depression was…well…
- 00:17
…depressing.
- 00:20
With unemployment, poverty, and inflation at all-time highs,
Full Transcript
- 00:23
America was the land of…
- 00:25
…no opportunity.
- 00:27
To get out of this slump,
- 00:29
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt…
- 00:31
…known as FDR…
- 00:33
…instituted a set of laws called The New Deal,
- 00:37
which focused on the three “R”s:
- 00:39
Relief, Reform, and Recovery.
- 00:45
The success or failure of these sweeping economic laws is still in debate today.
- 00:51
So was The New Deal a good idea or a bad one?
- 00:55
In other words:
- 00:56
New Deal or No Deal?
- 01:01
On the Relief front, FDR created federally-funded agencies to get people back to work…
- 01:08
…creating millions of jobs and constructing new bridges, highways, and dams that we still use today.
- 01:13
The government paychecks from these jobs helped feed families and alleviate poverty.
- 01:20
Things were getting better,
- 01:23
so we can say that relief was a “win” for the New Deal.
- 01:27
But in terms of reform…
- 01:29
…Roosevelt regulated the economy to prevent corruption and instability…
- 01:34
…though some argued that these regulations stifled economic growth.
- 01:42
We’ll call this round a tie for now.
- 01:46
Recovery. The third R.
- 01:48
The New Deal gets a big, fat “F.”
- 01:51
Unemployment remained high and economic growth dwindled.
- 01:55
So “No Deal” gets a point.
- 01:58
In the end, the New Deal succeeded in some areas and failed in others.
- 02:04
Ultimately, it was the production of guns for World War II that got the economy going again.
- 02:12
By starting the war, Hitler and Mussolini did more for the American economy than FDR
- 02:16
and the New Deal ever did.
- 02:20
So what do you think?
- 02:23
Was the New Deal just political rhetoric to get FDR Re-re-elected?
- 02:30
Or was it something that we needed?
- 02:33
Would World War II have been enough to save the economy?
- 02:38
New Deal or No Deal?
- 02:41
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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