New Deal: Building Modern America

Americans went through harsh times during the Great Depression where hope got lost, and the poor became poorer. The people no longer trusted the federal government, and as they elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the third year of the harsh economic times, there seemed to be nothing that could be done. However, the president came to the rescue of his people and with the New Deal, a composition of friendly legislation aimed at cushioning the average American from the hard economic times, he brought back hope.

The people enjoyed new benefits from the federal governments, and they regained their trust in the financial institutions of the time. The people appreciated the president and even reelected him in a landslide where more people showed up to vote for his second term in the history of America. The new deal was a coveted and intriguing part of the building and beginning of America that would shape the older generation and more importantly, the future of America.

The US experienced the Great Depression that made its citizens wonder if change and better days would ever come again. The great depression saw multiple families lose their daily income while the stock market plummeted to lows that seemed irredeemable (Cochran… 1). Confidence in the federal government followed the economic trend where citizens lost hope in their president and thus when the elections came along, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt got elected into office; it may just have just been a formality. Nevertheless, Franklin Delano Roosevelt seemed to have a sure plan to minimize the harsh effects of the Great Depression through The New Deal.

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The New Deal was introduced to the states within the first hundred days of President Roosevelt in the office with the aim of building confidence in the federal government. People were given jobs by the government which encouraged the family breadwinners who could now provide for their families. Most of the employment opportunities were in art and other craftsmanship as evidenced by the multiple murals, sculptures, and monuments of America’s history of the modern time (Cochran… 1). It is crucial to understand that the Great Depression had caused internal and external migration where areas in the South were significantly affected, and other citizens denied access to their jobs because they were immigrants.

The next approach aimed at the banks which were on a slow-motion mode of operation means. The American people did not put their savings or even get loans from the financial institutions across the states. To address the issue, the president made a deal with the institutions and intimately encouraged the Americans to put their money in the banks through his simple live talk programs on the radio (Dyer 4:44). People trusted him making a change and getting some money back where security on deposits was guaranteed, and some of the fear went down.

The New Deal continued to raise the hopes of the American citizens with intense programs like that of having social security. The federal government encouraged aged citizens to retire from their jobs to guarantee that younger citizens would get employment. However, retirement would be compensated through monthly checks of social security (Dyer 13:32). The social security funds would also be given to citizens who lost their employment. It may have been the most popular of all offers in the New Deal where people past the formal employment age would take rests while still enjoying the fruits of their hard working years.

Employment issues in any society play a vital role as employers in that day and age tended to break many laws by paying meager salaries, discriminating employees and even promoting child labor. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pushed agendas where employees get a say on the terms of their employment (Dyer 7:18). The people organized themselves in unions where they negotiated for better work conditions believing that that was the will of the president and that he cared enough about their jobs. The federal government at the time also passed laws dictating working hours and minimum wage for any work which was a step forward from the darker days that the nation had gone through where the employer was in the least bit interested in fairness.

The New Deal went down in history as an attempt by a conservative party and leadership to alleviate the struggles of the ordinary American (Bernstein 1). Average living Americans felt closer to their president as elaborated by his magnanimous reelection into power for his second term. The invention of the radio nearly at the same time as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in power, welcomed him into the homes of Americans who considered hope as long overdue making him a man of the masses. The people regained their trust in the federal government and risked their financial struggles by listening to the president and trying out policies to see if their situation could be any better.

However, the New Deal may not have been equitably distributed among all the Americans since most of the policies only got applied in the white suburbs while women and American immigrants were left out entirely. Despite President Roosevelt appointing a woman to head the labor team and including an African American female to be responsible for matters concerning the youth in his leadership, he appeared afraid to fully incorporate the African American into the New Deal (Dyer 16:58). Historians speculate that the people supporting President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency were the affluent white Americans who would have cringed at the thought of having an African American enjoy social security while other white men worked for him to get his monthly pension money. However, the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt was actively involved with the minorities moving around the countries to promote her husband’s agenda to them no matter how slightly (Dyer 21:04).

The New Deal also economically empowered the wealthy American more compared to the average American according to economists (Bernstein 1). More power got given to the big businesses with little or no distribution of power across the American Society where organized groups benefited and got recognized. The blame squarely belongs to the president and the conservatives in force at the crucial period. A perfect example of the unequal distribution of resources that took place under President Roosevelt’s watch include the mistakes done by the Agricultural Adjustment Act that saw many average American farmers lose their lands and income in the South (Bernstein 7). The landowners bagged in money by sending away the farmers loaning their property to produce crops such as cotton as the government attempted to handle the issue of overproduction of low yielding and low-income crops.

Overall, the New Deal was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s idea of how to get the average American out of the Great Depression. The Americans got power to determine their working conditions, pension among other things enabled through the legislation. The average American felt recognized by his president even though the New Deal mostly catered for the affluent white American in the real sense. However, the New Deal brought hope without which the Great depression would have conquered over the United States.

When historians discuss one of the darkest times in American history, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appears as a hero in touch with the suffering of his people and who created a political ripple effect where the federal government regained the support of the ordinary citizen after which every American feels directly involved in how the government ought to conduct its affairs. Americans now actively participate in their governance and legislation as well as at their workplace. The unions of employees formed after the Great Depression under the New deal offered structure and reliance of employers to ensure that working conditions were convenient and that equal representation of gender and age at the workplace got affected.

However, the most significant problem with the New Deal was that it encouraged racial discrimination where African Americans and other minorities got the least benefits from its legislation. The women also did not fully enjoy the advantages presented by the federal government as it mainly focused on the average American male struggling to support his family. Nevertheless, the new deal gave hope and reassurance at a time where Americans were almost giving up hope of ever realizing the American Dream.