“Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.”
The last president to serve during an absolute meltdown of the economy and extraordinarily high unemployment [imagine this: 25 percent unemployment rate when he first took office!] was Franklin D. Roosevelt back in 1933. During his first term, he faced a banking crisis, a depression [though many people may be depressed, we're technically only at recession status] and soon enough, he had a full-blown World War on his hands. It was during this time that he uttered the now famous quote, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
And what did he do about it? Today we call it The New Deal.
I used to think it was primarily Social Security and the repealing of Prohibition. But upon further review, I guess what made him a great president was the fact that The New Deal was a little deeper than that.
Roosevelt renamed a major relief program for the unemployed to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of the more popular agencies created, its purpose to hire 250,000 unemployed young men to work on rural local projects. The Federal Trade Commission received new regulatory powers and provided mortgage relief to millions of farmers and homeowners. More agencies were created to help the farmers [the auto workers are probably today's equivalent] and homeowners losing their homes. He also expanded the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a program designed to provide financing [something similar to the bailout plan perhaps?] to railroads and industry.
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 was designed to help regulate competition by establishing rules of operation for companies within different industries. Something today’s baking industry needs and maybe a regulation against these insane CEO pay checks and golden parachutes. A result of this was encouraging unions and suspending anti-trust laws. It was found to be unconstitutional in the Supreme Court, but FDR fought and more results included new banking regulations [apparently not enough!][apparently a work still in progress].
The NIRA included $3.3 billion [maybe nothing compared to today's $920 billion proposal, but back then a soda cost a fraction of what it cost today, not to mention a house] of spending through the Public Works Administration. Roosevelt also led the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority which built dams, power stations, controlled floods and modernized agriculture and home conditions, and most importantly, created jobs.
NOTE: I don’t really know this stuff off the top of my head. I got it from Wikipedia, for those who care to read more.
The point of mentioning some of Roosevelt’s decisions is because in today’s economic implosion, President Barack Obama seems to be following this pattern of thought in creating jobs, providing civic projects, regulating industries, getting his hands dirty and not worrying about what certain groups of people are saying, instead focusing on the goal of righting this sinking ship.
I can’t say I understand all the moves President Obama is making, nor can I say I understand exactly what Roosevelt did to get our house in order, but I do know it took Roosevelt nearly 10 years to get the unemployment from 25 percent [thank goodness we're still below 8 percent, well, for now] to less than 5 percent. But whatever he did, unemployment reached a mere 1.2 percent!
And how did that happen? War.
Let’s just hope we don’t need a full-scale global war to get everyone jobs [Lord knows I don't want to work in a factory building war machine!]. One thing, though, it is going to take, is some patience and some tough skin.
As Roosevelt said, “…the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.” I’m feeling pretty confident we have the right person leading the government to make this happen.
