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- ROOSEVELT’S IDEAS
- ECONOMIC POLICY: THE DEFENDERS
ROOSEVELT’S IMPORTANCEAs I said above, even people that hate Roosevelt acknowledge his importance. Historians, from right to left to centrist, agree on this. William E. Leuchtenburg, at the Conference on Leadership in the Modern Presidency at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, said that “The presidency as we know it today begins with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” There are many reasons for this, Leuchtenberg continued, from his leadership in World War II to his economic ideas to his intangible inspirational qualities. He noted “so powerful an impression did FDR leave on the office that in the most recent survey of historians he was ranked as the second greatest president in our history, surpassed only by the legendary Abraham Lincoln.” This did not stop some of his contemporaries from referring to FDR as "that megalomaniac cripple in the White House." But believe it or not, some of that sentiment stems from the same root. Many believe that today’s so-called “imperial presidency” -- where significantly more power rests in the hands of the executive branch -- began with FDR and his legislative ideas. ROOSEVELT’S IDEASMuch is made of Roosevelt’s social and economic reforms. In order to understand these, it is important to understand the ideology behind them. Perhaps the best manifestation of these ideas came from the man himself. In his famour “Four Freedoms” speech, FDR laid out exactly to what he thought humans ought to be entitled: Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world. For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are: Equality of opportunity for youth and for others. Jobs for those who can work. Security for those who need it. The ending of special privilege for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding straight of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations. This is why the left sees Roosevelt as a betrayer of social revolution, and perhaps they are right. This is also why the right sees him as a betrayer of unfettered capitalism -- and perhaps they are right, too. FDR saw the economic system of the early 20th century as too harsh, as failing to meet the needs of the public. If you’re starving, and you have to put your 10-year-old to work in a factory, sewing clothes for 16 hours a day for pennies a day (due to no child labor laws and no minimum wage), you’re a lot more susceptible to someone preaching overthrow of the existing system than, say, someone making a union-won family wage who can provide for his or her family and even be a little bit comfortable. FDR recognized this. He figured if America as we knew it was to survive intact, someone had to do something fast to preserve the positive aspects of the old order. He also thought there were certain fundamental rights to which humans were entitled. Unlike most every other president, he included economic rights in that list. The four freedoms which give the famous speech its name are listed here: In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb. One would think that this made FDR a pacifist, or at the very least an advocate of disarmament. This is not quite true, as we will see later.
The left saw FDR as a sellout who saved capitalism as we know it when it was on the brink of collapse, foregoing more revolutionary change for institutional reform. The right see him as having betrayed capitalism for a more socialist model. The thing they both agree on is that a fundamental shift occurred during his time in office. Before, the government had no rhetorical or actual commitment to the average working person. In January 1935, FDR emphasized his commitment to social security this way: "I see no reason why every child, from the day he is born, shouldn't be a member of the social security system. Cradle to the grave - from the cradle to the grave they ought to be in a social insurance system." You may have heard this “cradle to the grave” rhetoric before, but no one heard it from the President before then. The FDR years, wrote William Barber in his book DESIGN WITHOUT DISORDER, were "a watershed in economic policy and in economic thinking" (p. 3). The reason was not that Roosevelt was revolutionary economic thinker himself -- instead, he was a man with certain values (expressed above) that was willing to listen to professional economists about how to achieve those values. He had his own ideas -- Barber says he was "an uncompromising champion of consumer sovereignty" -- but he was more a "laboratory affording economists an opportunity to make hands-on contact with the world of events" (p. 2). Specifically, the FDR experimentation resulted in an "Americanized version of Keynesian macroeconomics" which relied on government stimulation of private industry. He also promoted expanded federal regulation of agriculture, industry, finance, and labor relations to prevent market failures and offer governmental support of certain businesses in danger of failure. Aside from the governmental influx of capital to boost the economy, FDR is best known for promoting what is known as “the welfare state.” This imprecise term covers a variety of reforms that constitute a safety net for the poor and otherwise disadvantaged. Things we take for granted today include: relief programs for the unemployed; the establishment of a legal minimum wage; Social Security; pensions for the elderly; unemployment insurance and aid to families with dependent children, the aged poor, the physically handicapped, and the blind. All of these were first established under Franklin Roosevelt. He explained his rationale in the Four Freedoms speech: Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples: We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care. We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it. I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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