The New Deal, while effective in the short-term sense of revitalizing the economy and providing jobs to the unemployed, did not benefit the future welfare of the United States. President’s Roosevelt’s goal to end the Great Depression was ultimately unsuccessful, for while his numerous social works did lower unemployment rates temporarily, this issue was not truly resolved until World War II. The rapid increase in government spending necessary to support these New Deal Acts also placed the United States into even further debt. Furthermore, many of the government funded programs favored whites over blacks, such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which subsidized farmers who often failed to pay their tenants and sharecroppers accordingly. In addition, the New Deal augmented the role of the federal government in day-to-day business, inevitably taking away the individual liberties of American citizens. The government’s increase in power led to their total control of the nation’s economy and their manipulation of large industry. Ultimately, the New Deal was a fiscal response to a monetary problem and only hurt the United States going forward.
West Virginia was a state where poverty persisted – especially among blacks – even during and after the New Deal
One criticism of the New Deal was that it was a multitude of programs all thrown at the problem in the hopes that one or two would work…