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Crash Course 34 - FDR and the New Deal

Added Feb 23, 2017 •

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Material corresponding to BTP Chapter 22

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history in today  where should we discuss in the FDR administration's response to the Great Depression the new deal that's the national cover Administration by the way not the National Rifle Association or the no rodents allowed club which I'm a card-carrying member of more controversially did it destroy American Freedom or expand the definition of Liberty in the end was it a good thing returning yes past you are not qualified to make that statement not everything about the new deal with controversial this is crash course not TMZ the new new redefine the role of the Federal Government for most Americans it went to a realignment of the constituents in the Democratic Party so-called New Deal coalition good job with the name Amir historians or wearing the New Deal is extremely important in American history wait a second I'm wearing a red shirt when he trying to say about me staying at the owner of the means of production hey Dad joke job Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a born politician as the United States has ever seen except for kid president cr's campaign and when he was running FDR suggested that it was the government's responsibility to guarantee Every Man a right to make a comfortable living but he didn't say he meant to accomplish this like it wasn't going to come from government spending since FDR was calling for a balanced budget and criticizing Hoover for spending so much and even some alcohol go again in one thing FDR did called for was an end to Prohibition which was the campaign promise he kept after three years of the Great Depression many Americans seriously needed a drink and the tax revenue so no more prohibition the Democrats took control of Congress for the first time in a decade make the New Deal or put it into effect it was passed by Congress government programs in fix the depression and prevent future depression there a couple ways historians conceptualize what is the category as the program's by their function this is where we see the New Deal described as Lars the relief programs gave help usually money to poor people in need recovery programs were intended to fix the economy in the short run and put people back to work Run-DMC program was designed to increase the sales of Adidas shoes no was reform programs that were designed to regulate the economy in the future to prevent future depression some of the programs like Social Security don't fit easily into one category and there are some blurred lines between recovery and reform turn is he Banking Act of March 1933 for example FDR's order to close the banks temporarily also created the FDIC which insures individual deposits against future thanking Disaster by the way we still have all that stuff but was it recovery because it helped the short-term economy by making more stable Banks or was it reform because Federal Deposit Insurance prevents Bank Run Uncle approach indicates that there has to be some kind of cause and effect thing going on because otherwise why would there be a second new deal if the first one works so perfectly the first New Deal comprises Roosevelt when's before 1935 which were passed in the first hundred days of his presidency it turns out that when it comes to getting our notoriously gridlocked Congress to pass legislation what dates like Crisis and fear stand pushing the Civilian Conservation Corps which paid young people to build national parks the agricultural adjustment act the glass-steagall ACT which barred commercial Banks from buying in stocks and the national industrial Recovery Act did government planners and Business Leaders working together to coordinate industry standards for production prices and working condition public-private cooperation immediate help too many of these starving unemployed so the Hundred Days reluctantly included the federal emergency relief Administration to give welfare payments to people who were desperate let's go to the Roseville worried about people becoming dependent on relief handouts in preferred programs that created temporary jobs one section of the Nira created the public Administration which appropriated $33 to build stuff like the Triboro Bridge so much for a balanced budget the Civil Works Administration launched in November 1933 and eventually employed 4 million people building bridges schools and airports series of dams in the Tennessee River Valley to control floods prevent deforestation and provide cheap electric power to people in rural counties in seven Southern States little that sweet sweet electricity the TV it was really controversial because it put the government in direct competition with private companies other than the Nira changes is the agricultural adjustment act they basically gave the government the power to try to raise Farm prices by setting production quotas and paying Farmers to plant ridiculous to the hungry Americans who watched it six million pigs were slaughtered and not made into bacon waste and 6 million pigs but bacon is good for me only property-owning farmers actually saw the benefits of the AAA so most African American farmers who were tenants or sharecroppers continued to especially acute in Oklahoma Texas Kansas and Colorado where drowned created the Dust Bowl all this direct government intervention in the economy is too much for the Supreme Court in 1936 the court struck down the AAA and US versus Butler earlier in the Schechter poultry case a case finally Green Court case with an interesting name the court invalidated the Nira because it's regulations quoting delegated legislative powers to the president and attempted to regulate local places that did not engage in interstate commerce by proposing a law that would allow him to appoint new Supreme Court Justices if sitting justices reach the age of 70 and failed to retire go ahead and look at the Constitution if Nicholas Cage hasn't already swiped it but it seemed like such a blatant power grab that Roosevelt's plan to pack the court brought on a huge backlash I think I've just been informed that Nicolas Cage stole the Declaration of Independence not the Constitution I want to apologize to Nick Cage himself and also everyone involved in the National Treasure which is truly a National Treasure economy was allowed under a very broad reading of the Commerce Clause I mean play Tim hungry and enter the state of satisfied that's begin the Second New Deal shifting Focus away from recovery and toward economic security stand out for their far sexier the National Labor Relations Act also called the Wagner Act and the Social Security Act 40 hear disputes over unfair Labor practice in 1934 alone there were more than 2,000 strikes including one that involved 400,000 textile workers turn ocular Union prevent me from getting electrocuted the rules here are simple I guess the author of the mystery document and I'm usually wrong and get shocked to allow people to be paid less than a living wage preserves to us our own Market there is absolutely no use in producing anything if you gradually reduce the number of people able to buy even the cheapest products the only way to preserve our markets is an adequate wage I mean usually don't make it this easy but I'm going to stud it's Franklin Delano Roosevelt and during the 1930s was the Congress of industrial organizations which set up to unionize entire Industries like steel manufacturing in automobile workers in 1936 turn Auto Workers going to the new tactic called the sit-down strike in Flint Michigan simply stopped working sat down and occupied the plant GM agreed to negotiate and the UAW One union membership Rose to nine million people as quote CIO unions help to stabilize a chaotic employment situation and offered members a sense of dignity and freedom that cord by the way it's from our old buddy Eric foner love you the new deal because they insisted the economic downturn have been caused by under-consumption and that the best way to combate the Depression was to raise workers wages so that they buy lots of stuff they thinking went to the people experience the West economic insecurity they would spend more of their money so they were widespread calls for public housing and Universal Health in current that brings us to the crowning achievement of the second new deal and or the crowning achievement of its communist plot the Social Security Act of 1935 Social Security included Employment Insurance Aid to the disabled Aid to poor families with children and of course retirement benefits it was and is funded through payroll taxes rather than general tax revenue state and local governments retained a lot of discretion over how benefits would be distributed Social Security still represented a transformation in the relationship between the federal government can American citizens didn't expect the government to help them in times of economic distress the question was no longer government should intervene but how in braced Keynesian economics the idea that the government should spend money even if it means going into deficit order to prop up demand in people's lives I mean for some people that meant relief for Social Security checks for other job with the most stressful government Employment Program the works progress administration WPA didn't just build post offices it paid painters to make them beautiful with murals it paid actors and writers put together please and ultimately employed more than three million Americans each year until it ended in 1943 photographs which we can show you for free because they are owned by the government so I'm just going to keep talking about how great their look at that one that's a winner okay you can we transform it if visually stimulating was the change that the New Deal brought to American politics decades earlier with unionized workers often immigrants left-wing intellectuals Urban Catholics and Jews at the are also gave the support of middle-class homeowners and what African Americans into the Democratic Party most important blocks in the New Deal coalition was white Southerners many of whom were extremely racist Democrats had dominated in the South since the end of reconstruction you know since the other party what's the party of Lincoln affected White's to dominate the government and the economy and they insisted on Gokul administration of many New Deal programs score of sharecroppers and tenant farmers and domestic servants all of whom were disproportionately African-American did the New Deal end the Depression no I mean by 1840 / 15% of the American Workforce remained unemployed then again when FDR took office in 1933 the unemployment rate was at 25% 7 infant government spending with working is that when FDR reduced government subsidies to farms in the WPA in 1937 unemployment immediately jumped back up when was 20% believe that it's an accurate to say that government spending failed to end the Depression because in the end at least according to a lot of what to attend was a massive government spending program called World War II party African Americans and union workers became Revival Democratic vote and secondly it changed our way of thinking like liberalism in the 19th century meant limited government and free-market you know mix Roosevelt use the term to refer to a large activestate that's all Liberty as quote greater security for the average man is security than it is to like freedom from government intervention is still really important in the way we think about Liberty today fall in the Contemporary political Spectrum Skins are constantly talking about keeping Americans safe FDR himself called the imperial presidency what is we tend to associate all government policy with the president like after Jackson and Lincoln's presidency Congress reasserted itself is the most important branch of the government that didn't happen Scrafty all the expectations that Americans had of their government Never Last Words today to Eric foner who never phoners it in the New Deal quote made the government and institution directly experienced than Americans daily lines and directly concerned with their welfare thanks for watching I'll see you next week and it is possible port at sellable do for free for everyone forever and that's possible thanks to your subscription turn it the price is up to you it can even be $0 although more is better thanks so much for watching crash course in this we stay in my hometown don't forget to be awesome

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Crash Course 34 - FDR and the New Deal

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