Saturday, September 17, 2016

What is the positive and negative legacy of the New Deal programs still active today?

Many of the New Deal programs created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt are still around today. For example, Social Security still provides payments to elderly people, and our bank accounts are still protected by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, is still in charge of policing Wall Street to make sure banks and other financial institutions do not violate the law (though the vigor with which they investigate...

Many of the New Deal programs created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt are still around today. For example, Social Security still provides payments to elderly people, and our bank accounts are still protected by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, is still in charge of policing Wall Street to make sure banks and other financial institutions do not violate the law (though the vigor with which they investigate Wall Street varies at times). In addition, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) still provides loans to homeowners, and there are several other New Deal agencies still in existence today. The positive legacy of these institutions is that they provide a safety net for Americans who are the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, and they are, at least theoretically, supposed to prevent another great economic collapse such as the Great Depression.


Many people do not like these programs, however, because they believe that they have made our federal government too large and too powerful. In addition, the cost of some of these programs, such as Social Security, is enormous, meaning that people have to finance these programs through high taxes. About one quarter of the federal budget goes to Social Security payments. 

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