A Changed Nation
"Most important, laissez faire in the Nineteenth Century manner was ended. The government had a role to play in industrial activity. We didn't move into a fascist kind of government control, because we continued to use the market mechanism."
- Gardiner C. Means, 1970
Terkel, Studds "Hard Times:An Oral History of The Great Depression" W.W. Norton & Co. 1970
- Gardiner C. Means, 1970
Terkel, Studds "Hard Times:An Oral History of The Great Depression" W.W. Norton & Co. 1970
This wild dream where the federal government accepted responsibility for curing a wide array of society's ills previously left to individuals, states, and local governments was his vision for our government. What were once seen as organizations designed to face a short-term problem have stood the test of time. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created to give jobs to unemployed construction workers and to help Americans transition from a “nation of renters” into a nation of owners.Today they are still doing that job by giving loans for over 34 million properties since its foundation in 1934. Roosevelt's policies also impacted the world on a global level, by revolutionizing the traditional view of the relationship between a government and it's people in European countries. As shown by the article by Isiah Berlin, where he describes Roosevelt's legacy on foreign nations, and how his New Deal sparked similar changes in government across the world;
"..A few of the alphabet agencies still exist today, and still are able to make monumental steps towards the United States’ development and progress. What were once seen as organizations designed to face a short-term problem have stood the test of time to become established and consistently influential." |
"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all - regardless of station, race, or creed." |