Negative Effects Of The New Deal

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The New Deal was intended to relieve the poor and the unemployed, recover the sluggish economy, and reform the financial and agricultural system. The policies of the New Deal relieved the economic crisis and social contradictions. However, not all people approved of the New Deal. Some common people and politicians were against the policies and some put forward some policies to replace the New Deal. Martha Gellhorn, Huey Long, and Herbert Hoover are three people who held a negative attitude toward Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Martha Gellhorn was a reporter sent by Harry Hopkins, director of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, to report on the conditions at North Carolina. The report demonstrated strong belief in President Roosevelt and described
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From the letter from Minnie Hardin, the policies on relief did not reach its initial goals. According to Minnie Hardin, the life of people relying on relief was even better than those working families; reliefers refused to work; poor people who moved into new houses from slums did not cherish the houses and squandered the money from the taxpayers; beggars required more than they needed to raise their descendants and deprived their children of benefits for their own wine and tobacco. It was unfair for the taxpayers. Just as Jim Powell (2003) states, the federal government increased various kinds of taxes, such as excise taxes, personal income taxes and so on, to support the New Deal program. Most of the excise taxes came from the middle class and poor people. Minnie Hardin proposed “a square deal” among all people. Many relieders took the relief for granted and preferred to rely on relief rather than went to work even given the job opportunity. On the one hand, the square deal could stimulate the reliefers to work and earn money on their own. However, it would be impossible for all to be equal, such as the disable and the …show more content…
Martha Gellhorn thought that the New Deal did not go far enough to help out the poor and the policy makers should make new measures. Huey Long also thought that Roosevelt was in favor of the rich and could not help out the poor and realize his promises. Therefore, he organized the audience to build the Share Our Wealth Society to fulfill their dreams. However, the movement was aborted. Herbert Hoover criticized Roosevelt’s New Deal because it harmed the liberty of the nation and he proposed to endow the business with more freedom. However, capitalism had its own disadvantages and it could not always run well. Therefore, moderate intervention of the government was necessary. Minnie Hardin admitted that the original intention of the policies on relief was good, but the policies did not work well when implemented. The reliefers took the relief for granted and wasted the taxpayers’ money. She believes that a square deal was

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