How successful was Prohibition as a piece of American Legislation?
Prohibition was not a big success as a piece of American Legislation and instead, had a generally negative impact on American society from January 19, 1920 to December 5, 1933. Herbert Hoover once described it as “a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose ” which came to it being known as the “Noble Experiment”. While many thought a ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor would “lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America”, it instead made alcohol became more dangerous to consume; organized crime blossomed; courts …show more content…
By 1926, there were around 30,000 speakeasies operating out of New York City as bootlegging operations appeared across the country to supply keen citizens with liquor. As hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, it pushed them to become criminals just to support their families. It also, gave rise to a vast illegal market (black market) for the production, trafficking and sale of alcohol. As someone once said “Prohibition didn’t stop drinking; it simply pushed the consumption of booze underground ”. The government increased the police funding to $11.4 million to try to fight back against this growing threat as well as diverted all police resources to fight it instead of other occurring crimes. Most of this money was spent on maintaining and managing the number of prisoners that were behind bars because of prohibition crimes . ‘The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’, with J. Edgar Hoover at the helm, stopped gangsters such as “Baby Face” Nelson, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Another unforeseen outcome was that Prohibition permanently corrupted law enforcement, the court system, and politics as now anyone could be bribed and blackmailed. For instance, speakeasies would bribe under-paid police officers …show more content…
This eradicated thousands of jobs and promptly thousands more jobs for barrel makers, truckers, waiters and other related trades were lost. By 1933, unemployment had risen to 25%. Many (recently) hard-working Americans struggled finding jobs while others turn to organized crime to support their families; seeing it as a quick method of making money. Following the 18th Amendment’s introduction, America’s unemployment rate was already drastically high. When the U.S. Stock Market crashed on October 29, 1929, it caused a global collapse of shares and plunge the world into the ‘Great Depression’ as someone once quoted “When America sneezed, the rest of the world caught a cold ”. This Great Depression brought on disastrous levels of unemployment across the world, with 14 million in the US
Prohibition was not a big success as a piece of American Legislation and instead, had a generally negative impact on American society from January 19, 1920 to December 5, 1933. Herbert Hoover once described it as “a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose ” which came to it being known as the “Noble Experiment”. While many thought a ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor would “lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America”, it instead made alcohol became more dangerous to consume; organized crime blossomed; courts …show more content…
By 1926, there were around 30,000 speakeasies operating out of New York City as bootlegging operations appeared across the country to supply keen citizens with liquor. As hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, it pushed them to become criminals just to support their families. It also, gave rise to a vast illegal market (black market) for the production, trafficking and sale of alcohol. As someone once said “Prohibition didn’t stop drinking; it simply pushed the consumption of booze underground ”. The government increased the police funding to $11.4 million to try to fight back against this growing threat as well as diverted all police resources to fight it instead of other occurring crimes. Most of this money was spent on maintaining and managing the number of prisoners that were behind bars because of prohibition crimes . ‘The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’, with J. Edgar Hoover at the helm, stopped gangsters such as “Baby Face” Nelson, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Another unforeseen outcome was that Prohibition permanently corrupted law enforcement, the court system, and politics as now anyone could be bribed and blackmailed. For instance, speakeasies would bribe under-paid police officers …show more content…
This eradicated thousands of jobs and promptly thousands more jobs for barrel makers, truckers, waiters and other related trades were lost. By 1933, unemployment had risen to 25%. Many (recently) hard-working Americans struggled finding jobs while others turn to organized crime to support their families; seeing it as a quick method of making money. Following the 18th Amendment’s introduction, America’s unemployment rate was already drastically high. When the U.S. Stock Market crashed on October 29, 1929, it caused a global collapse of shares and plunge the world into the ‘Great Depression’ as someone once quoted “When America sneezed, the rest of the world caught a cold ”. This Great Depression brought on disastrous levels of unemployment across the world, with 14 million in the US