4 ms·

FDR's initiative didn't provide any reset. WW2 was responsible for that.

ncphil 5y ago
Are you really so sure of that? I'm old enough to have known a lot of people who lived through the Depression _because_ of FDR's programs. Whether the New Deal alone could have saved the country is literally academic to the tens of millions who were saved by jobs in the CWA, WPA and CCC, or the relief provided by the FSA, SSA and economic aid to businesses under the NIRA. It seems unusually cold hearted for any historian or economist to ignore the tremendous suffering those measures spared so many, just because they didn't meet some theoretical threshold for full recovery.
- TheBlight 5y ago
  Yes, I'm sure.
  - timbit42 5y ago
    Since you provided no proof, you can be ignored.
    - TheBlight 5y ago
      I don't have time to teach remedial U.S. history. You can find charts that clearly indicate the phenomenon here (for ones which show pre-WW2 data): https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ Probably the best chart: https://wtfhappenedin1971home.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/img_0658-1.jpg https://wtfhappenedin1971home.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/im...
ineedasername 5y ago
The two are not mutually exclusive: FDR put the US on the path to active assistance & becoming one of the allied powers. It is also a path that might have been impossible if not for the social & jobs programs keeping people afloat in the years before that. A more complete collapse might have rendered the US too damaged to focus any effort outside of itself. As it was, many people opposed entering the war on precisely those grounds-- that the US should deal with its own internal problems rather than those a continent away. FDR plowed through those objections, and incidentally sparked the economic recovery fueled by massive industrial mobilization. Whether or not you agree with FDR's handling of the Great Depression, you cannot separate that from the course of events that shaped the outcomes of WW II (both good and bad)
Aeolun 5y ago
WW3 then? I’d rather attribute it to FDR I think.
furyg3 5y ago
Yes, the 'great levelers' which seriously reduced income inequality were the Plague, the Black Death, and the two World Wars. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/19/history-suggests-there-is-a-way-to-lower-inequality-but-youre-not-going-to-like-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/19/histo... https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01M34NBLZ&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_j049ybF13VJQ1&tag=thewaspos09-20&reshareId=BYRN0BM27QS3G914JM4S&reshareChannel=system https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01M34NBLZ&preview=new...

Are you really so sure of that? I'm old enough to have known a lot of people who lived through the Depression _because_ of FDR's programs. Whether the New Deal alone could have saved the country is literally academic to the tens of millions who were saved by jobs in the CWA, WPA and CCC, or the relief provided by the FSA, SSA and economic aid to businesses under the NIRA. It seems unusually cold hearted for any historian or economist to ignore the tremendous suffering those measures spared so many, just because they didn't meet some theoretical threshold for full recovery.

TheBlight 5y ago
Yes, I'm sure.
- timbit42 5y ago
  Since you provided no proof, you can be ignored.
  - TheBlight 5y ago
    I don't have time to teach remedial U.S. history. You can find charts that clearly indicate the phenomenon here (for ones which show pre-WW2 data): https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ Probably the best chart: https://wtfhappenedin1971home.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/img_0658-1.jpg https://wtfhappenedin1971home.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/im...

ineedasername 5y ago

The two are not mutually exclusive: FDR put the US on the path to active assistance & becoming one of the allied powers. It is also a path that might have been impossible if not for the social & jobs programs keeping people afloat in the years before that. A more complete collapse might have rendered the US too damaged to focus any effort outside of itself. As it was, many people opposed entering the war on precisely those grounds-- that the US should deal with its own internal problems rather than those a continent away. FDR plowed through those objections, and incidentally sparked the economic recovery fueled by massive industrial mobilization. Whether or not you agree with FDR's handling of the Great Depression, you cannot separate that from the course of events that shaped the outcomes of WW II (both good and bad)

Aeolun 5y ago

WW3 then? I’d rather attribute it to FDR I think.

furyg3 5y ago

Yes, the 'great levelers' which seriously reduced income inequality were the Plague, the Black Death, and the two World Wars. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/19/history-suggests-there-is-a-way-to-lower-inequality-but-youre-not-going-to-like-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/19/histo... https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01M34NBLZ&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_j049ybF13VJQ1&tag=thewaspos09-20&reshareId=BYRN0BM27QS3G914JM4S&reshareChannel=system https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01M34NBLZ&preview=new...