Originally Posted by
sickboy
http:///forum/post/2750349
Well, yeah, after the war I guess there was a debt mess. Everyone owing everyone else x amount of money, and that is not and will not go away. So i guess if we don't pay attention to our national debt...there really is no point to being fiscally conservative. I'll have to think about this for a bit.....this may be the first point that you might have changed my mind on.....
I'm talking pre-wwII. The New Deal and the government spending involved racked up more national debt than in US history to that point.
p25 (It looks like these are actual numbers)
Now the thing is he made some needed improvements in infrastructure (which is fine) a lot of govt job were building roads. And national parks ect which was fine, and the roads were probably needed. However the concept that the government can hire and spend was as demonstrated a slippery slope.
The approach to the new deal and the new deal 2 was a multiple prong approach, some of it was fine, like policing some stuff (like the FDIC) in order to create (a false) sense of security because so much of our monetary policy is actually based on faith. (but hey you should be thrilled with the Fanny and Freddy bailout) Keeping the banks secure.
I'm not against the fed providing some regulation to ensure some basic ethical guidelines are upheld.
Some of it was government mandated savings (SS) which was never meant to be the monster it became, and even FDR never meant it as a permanent government institution. But welfare as we know it is based out of these policies.
Another aspect of the New Deal was the government hiring enough people to make unemployment more manageable. And at the height of the New Deal 2unemployment did drop from 25% down to around 15%. Today, the federal government is the single largest entity in terms of employment. Then we are talking about hiring enough people to change the unemployment rate. We have what 300 million people with 60+% either looking for a job or employed. You are talking some MAJOR federal deficits simply because of the shear enormity of what it would take to make a significant impact on our economic indicators.
