The New Deal Was Not A Success

Essay by mjj328High School, 10th gradeA+, September 2004

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The Great Depression was one of the most terrible catastrophes in U.S. history, and resulted in the need for government help to pull the nation out of the depression. The New Deal refers to the programs and acts that came about as a response to the Great Depression. However, the New Deal was not successful in removing the country, either economically or socially, out of the Depression. The Agricultural Adjustment Act only resulted in waste of crops and more unemployment, and hurt many more people than it helped. The NRA did not provide enough to really help the working people of America. The New Deal did not do enough to help the people out of unemployment and poverty. Overall, while the New Deal was in action, it did not provide sufficient relief to the country, and was therefore not a success.

        One of the New Deal Acts that caused a lot of problems was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, an Act which Roosevelt himself referred to as an "uncertain experiment" (Thomas 137).

The AAA allowed Congress to pay farmers to reduce crop production, pay farmers who stored their crops, and create marketing agreements between farmers and buyers (AAA 1). It's purpose was to persuade farmers to produce less because overproduction was hurting the profits of the farmers. Many things resulted from this act. In 1933 alone, 10.4 million acres of cotton and 9 million acres of wheat were plowed under (Stevens 298). Crops were not the only things destroyed-livestock were also needlessly slaughtered. Machines could not handle the mass quantity of pigs to be slaughtered, and so carcasses were dumped in rot piles and tossed in rivers with meat still on them. As Kyes Stevens writes, "It showed the public government methods of waste during such a profound time of starvation...