Many believe that Hoover held a great deal of responsibility for the causes, and the negative effects of the depression. Hoover first approached the issue when he lowered income tax, believing that with more money to spend citizens would invest in the stock market, and buy the products that were being overproduced. However, this made little significant impact because income tax was already low. Hoover also asked that big business owners not lower the employee wage. Many became homeless as a result of the Great Depression and, as a result, Hoovervilles were created. In these Hoovervilles, the homeless built shacks to live and named it after the president that they held responsible for their misfortune. Although Hoover did believe that charities should step in and help relieve suffering, he denied requests for direct federal relief once charitable funds were diminished (Divine 847). Hoover ultimately worsened the …show more content…
Roosevelt took office. Roosevelt’s approach to the depression was known as the “New Deal.” In his first 100 days as president, FDR already began to impact the economy. FDR communicated with the citizens in a series of “fireside chats.” (Divine 851) After three years of the Depression, FDR called for an end to prohibition to give the government tax revenue. The New Deal was a set of government programs put forth by congress to fix the Great Depression, and prevent future depressions. The three programs consisted of relief, recovery and reform. Relief gave help to the poor, recovery put people back to work, and reform helped to prevent future depressions.
FDR then closed the banks on a “bank holiday.” During this time the FDIC was created, which functioned in giving citizens a form of protection of their money. FDR implemented several programs to create jobs, open banks, create national parks, limited crop production with quotas and limit the stock market. Because FDR feared that people would become too dependent on relief, he sought to create temporary jobs. Although the New Deal did not end the depression, it helped decrease unemployment and put America on the right path to recovery. The Depression did not officially end until the beginning of World War