Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmy
Yeah, you are right. I would have much preferred the standard of living before the new deal.
|
Actually, the standard of living before The New Deal was better than during the heyday of The New Deal before FDR's death. Just about all his policies failed to rectify the depression, prolonging it well beyond those of the past. Not only were his policies counter-productive, they were punitive toward business and created the uncertainty that dissuaded investors and kept business from expanding. And prices were intentionally and artificially raised, making it even more difficult for consumers. FDR's passing and the beginning of a rollback of some New Deal policies and the friendlier face of new administrations toward business was the ticket to renewed prosperity, as well as the fact that, as RIJimmy and JohnnyD said, our infrastructure and manufacturing facilities had not been destroyed by the War as they had been in the rest of the advanced world. There have been a few new books on FDR and The New Deal which have revised perspectives from a more objective view than the panegyrics of historians such as Schlesinger, Commager, Morris, and Leucthtenburg.
I've just finished reading NEW DEAL OR RAW DEAL, by Burton Folsom, Jr. It's an easy, very interesting and very informative read. I highly reccommend it for an alternative insight to the accepted orthodoxy. And it has parallels to our current economy and to some of the administration's solutions and methods. It is also interesting to note that FDR was the main facilitator and creator of our current "fourth branch of government," the massive, bureaucratic, administrative State which essentially replaces the Consitution as the process by which we are governed.
Threaded Mode