New Deal
Well, my father thought the prosperity would last forever. But let me tell you one thing: you can’t build an economy on credit. It WILL fail. Having nobody pay the full price of an item leads to bankrupt companies and taking loans with no backup system just leads to bank failures. Life did sound pretty great, but it basically screwed over my generation. Now we’re recovering from the Great Depression (thanks Dad) and FDR is taking some pretty big risks to fix our economy.
To fix the economy, the first step is fixing banks. The FDIC was a crucial addition to the banking system. Sums of money up to $2,500 in banks were insured, so if the bank were to give it away or lose it for any reason, the person wouldn’t lose the money. It may take a while to get it back, but it would happen, even if it had to come from government reserves. This brought trust back to banks, and fixed its own problem in a way.
Next was to give people jobs. Having the majority of the nation unemployed makes it basically impossible to recover. The CCC, PWA, and WPA were all part of solving the unemployment issue. All had to do with public building projects, servicing the nation while providing jobs to individuals. The CCC focused on national parks, creating many of the trails and structures in them. The PWA focused on public works and existed until the start of the preparation for WWII. The WPA was the largest new deal agency, and employed millions of Americans across the entire nation. Buildings, roads, bridges, and other public structures were built in even the most remote locations, acting as a service to future American life and a jump-start to the economy.
With the new jobs and all, people wanted to be sure that they could live comfortable in their old age, when they could no longer work. The SSA provided what we call “social security” for that, preventing poverty among the elderly. A percentage of all money made by an individual was taken away from each paycheck, to be locked in a private account that can only be accessed from age 65 and up. I can look forward to this in my old age, knowing I won’t have to depend on you, my children, to provide for me.
