Comments on: Will Obama’s Stimulus Plan Work?

By: Chad Brand

Chad Brand — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:34:52 +0000

Your conclusion completely ignores the chart I provided to prove the point. The chart does not include employment, which I have no doubt was helped tremendously by the war. After all, how many tens of thousands of people were hired to support the war effort? If one defines economic growth as solely joblessness, then you likely have a point. However, GDP is the benchmark for economic growth and that is the metric I have used here to show the New Deal’s effect on the economic in general, rather than one single statistic like unemployment.

By: Albert

Albert — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:56:03 +0000

What the New Deal gave America was relief, but it did not solve the problem, it only prolonged it. It also left America with more debt. When FDR took office in 1933 (Year New Deal was passed.) unemployment was over 24%. In 1935 (Second year New Deal was passed) unemployment was at 18%. In 1939, it was 17.2%. In 1940 (before the War), unemployment was still over 17%. That doesn’t sound like something that worked, after all 17% unemployment is MASSIVE. From 1933 to 1938, unemployment dropped only 7%. When America entered the Second World War in 1942, unemployment began to drop in a rapid pace. In 1943 unemployment had fallen to 1.9%. The Second World War is what got us out of the Depression. It made unemployment go away and it awakened the industrial might of America. It’s not hard to see how WW2 got us out of the Great Depression. With everyone buying, spending, and producing, the economy made a great recovery. With the demand for war supplies high, it forced our nation to be more productive, which lead to us being more prosperous. WW2 got us out, the New Deal did not. All the New Deal left us with was a higher debt and a larger government…

I think FDR’s own staff members can summarize how badly the New Deal failed, like what Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of Treasury for FDR, said once. He said -

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and now if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosper. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot.”

- Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Secretary of Treasury… (1941)

That came from FDR’s own staff member! The numbers don’t lie either. Redistribution of wealth, which is what a stimulus does, does not create wealth or jobs! It only changes who has the money…

New Deal policies like the National Industry Recovery Act of 1933, instituted “codes” to limit competition in business. Businesses were forced to cut output, so they could maintain high prices and wages. Businessmen who cut prices were cajoled, fined, and sometimes arrested. Fortunately, NIRA was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1935…

Other polices all did what the NIRA did. A good example is the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. It slashed production to increase and maintain high prices and wages. Other acts made the cost of employment incredibly high, such as the Davis-Bacon Act, or the increase on Social Security, which increased the cost of compensations.

All of these policies also included high tax hikes, high regulations on business, and increased spending. These policies all lead to high unemployment and an increased burden to families. Many liberals talk about how FDR helped people, but what good is help, when the majority of the nation needed more than help. It needed economic help and recovery, which never came…

By: Huge Kid

Huge Kid — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:04:14 +0000

Get prepared for our country to turn socialist, and for a global government to form. The world will continue to get worse this way, not better. The govt wont admit it though, cause they are happy with their jobs and benefits. They also have complete control of all the people. What are we to do about it?

By: Huge Kid

Huge Kid — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:03:54 +0000

I understand, this is not going to work while you have socialist policies in place and the thought of the government bailing out companies. You must let the capitalist market be capitalist. We would have to recover, and then implement regulations that do not allow bailouts of any kind. Yes, banks will still fail in the future, and if their insurance company fails, either tough luck or someone healthy buy them up. This is how a capitalist market should work. In other words, you can’t have a “federal reserve” even exist. We know this is practically impossible with the debts and foreign central banks. Now that we are on a global level, its either join the government, win the lottery, or suffer in the private industry while the CEO’s can continue to pay themselves the big bucks cause they know they will get bailed out. If not, who are they to care, they are set for life.

By: Chad Brand

Chad Brand — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:42:01 +0000

I don’t know… AIG already showed this doesn’t always work. They became the biggest private insurer on earth (by insuring every single product the banks could dream up) and now they can’t pay the losses. The government didn’t want to let all of AIG’s policy holders fail too, so they are essentially giving AIG $200 billion to pay out the claims for them.