The Great Depression era was one of the most severe hardships in United States history. The amount of suffering that ordinary Americans endured during the Depression was unprecedented. The Depression caused big businesses like Ford to layoff much of their workers during the Depression. This massive unemployment caused millions of workers to lose their homes and their livelihoods, puting Americans in destitute situations of extreme poverty. During the Depression the contemporary safety nets that existed to help take care of people when disaster struck had dried up and was unable to assist everyone. Ethnic institutions, churches, and State governments simply did not have the resources to provide for everyone who was afflicted by the Depression. …show more content…
Huey Long had a rural upbringing in the early 1900s in Louisiana. He started off his career as a lawyer who often fought cases for common folks against big business leaders, oftentimes successfully pulling off upsets. Eventually he started his career as a politician in Louisiana and eventually moved up the ranks until he was elected governor. What made Long so popular among the people of Louisiana was his populist rhetoric. Long blamed the big business class as the cause of society's problems, and proclaimed that they needed to share their wealth more with the rest of society. His message resonated with many of Louisiana's working class. Eventually Long was elected to the senate and while he initially worked with Roosevelt in drafting his New Deal, he eventually drifted away from him as Roosevelt believed that the reforms that Long sought were incompatible with his beliefs. Huey Long wanted a redistribution program implemented into the New Deal known as the Share Our Wealth Program. This program was suppose to sharpy raise the taxes of the rich, preventing people from getting too wealthy, while providing every American with a decent standard of living. While Roosevelt did seek to provide for workers with his New Deal Program he was completely opposed to this measure. Roosevelt and Long’s disagreements over the New Deal eventually caused a split in their alliance. Long would eventually seek to run for election to challenge Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, before he was tragically assassinated. While Long and Roosevelt were initially allies, Long’s reforms were too radical leading to be implemented into Roosevelt’s New Deal, leading to their
Share The Wealth and the New Deal programs were two influential programs to help the U.S. in its time of need. Share The Wealth was an idea influenced by a Louisiana governor named Huey P. Long (text pg. 872). The New Deal program was created by our strong, inspirational president at the time; Franklin D. Roosevelt (text pg. 883). With Share The Wealth and the New Deal in effect, these programs were expected to strengthen the U.S. economy, and change the society of American lives.
On the other hand, “Long believed that it was morally wrong for the government to allow millions of Americans to suffer in abject poverty when there existed a surplus of food, clothing, and shelter.” He blamed the mass suffering on a capitalist system run amok and feared that impending civil unrest threatened the democracy. “By 1934, nearly half of all American families lived in poverty, earning less than $1,250 annually.” Huey Pierce Long, also known as The Kingfish, was an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. A Democrat, he was an outspoken populist who denounced the rich and the banks and called for "Share the Wealth."
During the 1930’s, the United States was undergoing the Great Depression and wealth inequality was increasing. Long exploited the political environment and the sentiments of the working class by often criticizing political elites for undermining the working man. Long often had good policy ideas like providing free textbooks, building roads to rural areas, and creating a program to curb wealth inequality, which would serve the better good of the public. However, his means of implementation were corrupt, viewed as undemocratic and heavily disparaged by his political counterparts. Long was a strategic politician and supposing he was able to secure the presidency, the separations of powers set in place by the branches of the federal government would not enable him to maneuver the system as he did with the states.
Roosevelt was first in office, Huey P. Long was a huge supporter of his. He thought that he would do great things for the country and fixing the Great Depression. Long campaigned for him while he ran for president and early in his presidency. They made a great alliance, being two of the most politically powerful men in the country at the time. This wouldn’t last, though, because when FDR’s new deal wasn’t doing as he promised Huey P. Long came up with his own plan.
Great Depression The great depression has been considered one of the worst economic downfalls in history, due to many different reasons. This economic depression affected many people now in different ways but all because of the same reason. Some of the groups affected by this turmoil were the farmers, wage workers, and the labor unions. All three of these groups of people were affected by the depression in a few ways each with a negative outcome.
The Great Depression was a devastating period in United States History, the economy collapsed, and a staggering 25% of the population was unemployed. During this time, there were large wage disparity gaps that were very prevalent, there was no middle class, you were either wealthy or you were poor. It was hard for family life to continue, parents had to take up two and three jobs to make sure their kids were staying safe, and well. Most of these jobs were odd-jobs, and were temporary with no sense of security. It was a struggle to find work, and no job was too demeaning for you to do, because you may not find work again.
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the world. It began in the United States when the stock market crashed in October 1929. Everybody was sent into a panic and millions of investors were wiped out. Unemployment levels began to rise after consumer spending and investment dropped, while stock prices continued to increase. Companies started to lay off their workers, and soon nearly thirteen to fifteen million people in America were without jobs.
He believed that it was the people’s responsibility to get themselves out of the depression since they got themselves into the mess in the first place. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the other hand would interact with the people of America during the depression, FDR would actually get on the radio every week and talk to the people about what he had planned for them. The New Deal was FDR’s plan and It was designed to give people their jobs back and reduce the amount of the unemployed people in the U.S. However, the New Deal wasn’t specific on how it’d give the jobs back in fact the New Deal actually catered to white people, black people were stripped of their jobs and were replaced by white people.
Because of the nature of the depression, the people’s personal responsibility were little to blame. As Roosevelt put it, when private facilities cannot provide jobs for the public, it is the government’s role to provide relief. This marked a three term cycle between aiding the working class, and emerging social programs, that inherently strengthened the powers of the federal government. Altogether, this changed the people's interaction with government from being fairly limited before the twentieth century, to federal government control over monetary policies and workforce standards, which enacted long lasting changes in the upcoming form of government (Biles 3).
America had experienced other depressions or “panics,” but none were like the Great Depression. The Great Depression began on October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, with the stock market crashing. Most people believe that the cause of the Great Depression was the stock market crashing. Although that is what triggered the Great Depression there were many underlying causes that lead up to the stock market crashing. Some of the underlying causes include under-consumption/over-production, uneven distribution of wealth, loose banking and corporate regulations, tariffs policies, and the stock market.
Although both men fought for the same cause, they went about their fights differently and shared different views. These differences are the reasons why we will remember them for many years to come. Huey P. Long, who was once an ally of Franklin Roosevelt, found himself going against Roosevelt in the end. The Fall of 1933 was the cause of the breach of the alliance simply because Long felt that Roosevelt did not solve the nation’s economic issues and did not change the distribution of the nation’s wealth among all American’s within the first “Hundred Days” of the New Deal legislation. Long then proposed the Share Our Wealth societies.
To begin, the Great Depression took a great toll on the typical American man. Many got fired from their jobs causing unemployment. It was almost impossible to get another job so they were stuck living with no money at all. Not having money caused most men to struggle with bills. Because they couldn’t pay bills they went into debt.
In his New Deal, Roosevelt attempted to revise a number of characteristics of society which he perceived to be the least beneficial and could be easily improved upon. One such feature was the highly uneven distribution of wealth in pre-Depression society. In a radio address, Louisiana governor and U.S. Senator Huey Long outlined a plan to mend the, “bad distribution of this nation’s wealth,” which detailed that, “no family shall own more than three hundred times the average family wealth” while, “every family shall have an income equal to at least one third of the average family income in America.” (Doc E) An extremely liberal opponent of the New Deal, Huey Long insisted that the New Deal propose many radical changes to form a new society in the wake of one that led to an economic depression.
Millions had lost their jobs, their homes and they were hungry. The nation was in crisis and Roosevelt took advantage of this situation. During the 1932 presidential election, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised a “new deal for the American people.” Roosevelt sent Congress several proposals to fight the Depression. These proposals collectively would become known as the New Deal.
Nishat kazi (Muniya) 11th grade The Great Depression was one of the worst downturn of economy in the history that took place during the 1930s. It had a catastrophic effect in countries on both rich and poor. Though there are a lot of causes behind the Great Depression,the main three causes were-1.Bank failure 2.Stock market crash 3.laissez faire.