2008 - Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC)

H i s t o r y
In other industries, such as agriculture, government involvement
was more direct, by way of huge subsidies given to farmers; the
same was the case in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a
project that brought electric power to Appalachia.
However, in its very ideological underpinnings, the First New
Deal was a jumpstart for the investment sector of the economy,
leaving out the common person – workers. Consequently,
workers and the masses felt abandoned. It is not surprising
that labour unrest and radicalism found breeding grounds in the
suffering of the masses. Dr. Townsend in California advocated a
stipend for the elderly; governor Huey Long of Louisiana called
for 100% tax on capital gains and restriction of inheritance
wealth; the two preempted the social security act and the wealth
tax respectively. Father Coughlin turned to purely racist rhetoric
in the process. It was the massive countrywide strikes that got
Roosevelt’s attention. In response he came up with a Second
New Deal.
The problem in the Second New Deal was identified as
under consumption. Taking after the British economist J.M.
Keynes, the New Dealers adopted expansionary government
spending (pump-priming). The target in the Second New Deal
was the worker, the ordinary person, unlike in the First New Deal
where industry was the focus. Roosevelt promised to deal with
the private sector for the common man’s good. The National
Recovery Labour Board (NLRB), also known as the Wagner Act
gave the teeth to the NRA. Additional legislation was passed
to support the Second New Deal, including the Companies
Act to dilute the power of utility companies. The Public Works
Administration (PWA) was expanded and strengthened in order
to provide funding for numerous social projects at grass root
level, including youth and liberal arts programs. The 2nd new
deal enacted into law the Social Security Act and imposed
wealth tax on the rich.
Another difference between the two deals was that the
Second New Deal limited/controlled production by means of
environmental (soil) conservation, unlike direct output reduction
in the first New Deal. The Second New Deal also benefited
poor urban populations across the racial boundaries, as well as
indigenous Americans, who had been left out almost as a race.
Both deals also put in place infrastructure, from dams, airports,
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W r i t i n g A c r o s s t h e C u r r i c u l u m