The Pros And Cons Of The New Deal

As for everything in life, there are two sides of the “New Deal” coin. This was an economic experiment on America to help pull it out at a desperate time. Some of the policies that came out of the New Deal were good and are still in use today such as the FDIC and Social Security. There were other policies that possibly did more damage than good even though they had good intentions. Although the public works projects created many new jobs there were several policies signed that were meant to help the economy, but ended up while more unemployment. The National Industrial Act (1933) was one of those policies that meant well and looked good on paper, but hurt the American people instead. It forced higher wages while reducing production. Any who …show more content…
This hurt black tenant farmers. Now with the production being reduced, as the supply goes down the demand for products go up and so does the price. If that wasn’t bad enough, taxes went up also to fund all these programs being initiated. The federal tax went up 3.7 billion dollars in 7 years. Then you were also taxed on everything you bought as well as electricity. This put a strain on the middle class’ and poor’s pocketbook. People started to look for deals. That all stopped when F.D.R. signed two more policies, the Anti-Chain Store Act (1936) and the Retail Maintenance Act (1937). That kept businesses from underselling each other. What about TVA? Yes, that is F.D.R.’s baby too. Good intentions to provide affordable electricity. He put it in the hands of the Tennessee Valley Authority. They, in turn, built dams and flood 750,000 acres of land. That land was being used by sharecroppers to make a living. They did not own that land so they could not legally fight for it. The unemployment list continues to grow. Plus, you also have thousands of people displaced without a home who lived on the land that was flooded to make Kentucky Lake and Barkley