New Deal Nightmare Revisited

Will America trickle down or go bottom-up?

Barack Obama’s New Deal-style economic vision is reminiscent of an American nightmare. The new president-elect — professorial in his socioeconomic approach — may be forgetting one of history’s valuable lessons.

Undoubtedly controversial, the New Deal marked a change in government socioeconomic oversight. But are there lessons to be learned from New Deal programs? After all, in an attempt to domesticate capitalism, many of its programs placed an unnecessary burden on businesses — the engine of the economy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiated social programs as an answer to the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression. Many of which were clearly tainted with socialist premises. However, ripe for its time, the American public, out of desperation, was willing to cling to the hope that New Deal programs offered. Does this sound familiar?

The New Deal did offer social programs that alleviated certain aspects of the Great Depression. Social Security is a successful forced-retirement program. However, the point here is not to focus on the successes of the New Deal, but to focus on where it went wrong so that America can learn from it. After all, there is a reason why America phased out the majority of New Deal programs.

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