Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Essay Example for Free

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Essay In solving the problems of the Great Depression, the New Deal had clear successes but also major failures. Although there were clear failures in relief and reform, the success of unemployment relief and the reform of banking, labor laws, and the standard of living partially solved problems of the Great Depression. The failures that occurred within the New Deal were early policies that attempted to relieve unemployment and reform labor laws. One of the policies enacted by the Emergency Congress in order to relieve unemployment and foreclosures of farms was the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). This agency was to establish parity prices for basic commodities. The AAA planned to eliminate price-depressing surpluses of farm goods by paying farmers to reduce what they grew. These payments would come from raised taxes. However, this agency got off to a terrible start and never really recovered. Farmers, food processors, consumers, and tax-payers were all extremely unhappy. The AAA actually increased unemployment while other agencies of the New Deal were striving to decrease it. The failed agency of the AAA was finally killed by the Supreme Court in 1936 by declaring its taxation provisions unconstitutional. In addition to the failure of the AAA, the National Recovery Administration also failed. This agency was extremely complex and strived to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed. It attempted to both relieve and reform the problems of the Great Depression. Individual industries were to reduce hours of labor in order to allow employment to be spread to more people. A limit was put on the maximum hours of labor and a minimum was placed on wages. Workers were guaranteed the right to organize, the yellow-dog contracts were forbidden, and restrictions were placed on child labor. Although this agency had early success, it quickly collapsed in 1935. The agency gained many critics and business people publicly displayed the blue bird, which symbolized the NRA, but secretly violated the codes. The Supreme Court then unanimously held that Congress could not delegate legislative powers to the executive and declared that congressional control of interstate commerce could not apply to a local business. This finally  shot down the dying eagle. Although the intentions were to solve the problems of the Great Depression, the AAA made unemployment worse and the NRA flat out f ailed. In contrast to the failures of early New Deal policies, there was some success in unemployment relief. The same action of Congress that created the NRA also created the Public Works Administration which was also intended for industrial recovery and unemployment relief. Under this agency, $4 billion was spent on thirty-four thousand projects in infrastructure. It resulted in the spectacular achievement of the Grand Coulee Dam which provided irrigation for millions of acres of new farmland. It also created a surplus of electrical power, something that would be beneficial during World War II. The thousands of projects created by this agency and the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam show the success of this agency to employ numerous workers for the benefit of the country. The New Deal also had success in unemployment insurance through enactment of the Social Security Act in 1935. The measure provided for federal-state unemployment insurance and specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington. Provisions were also created for the blind, handicapped, delinquent children, and other dependents. Although many were excluded from Social Security, it showed the governments’ recognition that it has a responsibility for the welfare and relief of its citizens. The New Deal additionally had success in reform, specifically banking reform. President Roosevelt’s first action to attack the problems of the Great Depression was to restore confidence in the nation’s banks. The creation of the Emergency Banking Relief Bill placed poorly managed banks under the control of the Treasury Department and granted government licenses to those who were successful. The following week, millions of Americans re-deposited their savings, allowing banks to contribute to the country’s economic recovery. The government then later passed the Banking Act of 1933 which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits. Roosevelt also instituted a number of inflationary measures in order to raise prices. Roosevelt’s immediate actions to reform the banking system of the United States were extremely successful and restored American  confidence in the banks. Confidence in the banks was the first step that allowed ev en more problems of the Great Depression to be solved. Not only was there successful reform in banking, but there was eventually successful labor reform. After the failure of the NRA to reform labor laws, Congress created the Wagner Act in 1935. This act reasserted the right of labor to organize and bargain through representatives of its own choice. In response to this act, a number of unskilled workers began to organize themselves into unions, such as the Committee for Industrial Organization. After a successful sit-in strike, the CIO was recognized by General Motors as the bargaining agency for its employees. The ability for unions to organize and successfully strike showed the success of this labor reform. Another successful reform under the New Deal was the reform of housing. To create a quick recovery and to increase the standard of living, Roosevelt set up the Federal Housing Administration in 1934. The building industry that was in charge of housing construction was to be stimulated by small loans to householders. The goal was to improve homes and to complete new ones. This New Deal reform was so successful that Congress bolstered the program in 1937 by creating the United States Housing Authority. Although there were some conflicts in completely reaching the goals of the USHA, slums in America shrank for the first time in a century, showing the success of this program. It is true that not every problem of the Great Depression was solved through the New Deal. There were definitely setbacks in the process of reforming and relieving the country, but many of the successful agencies New Deal were able to at least ease many of the problems of the Great Depression. The New Deal, although not completely, provided a step in the right direction for healing the United States.

Judgement :: essays research papers

Judgement People can often be treated and judged in a less than equal manner before people even know the true nature of the person, such as the way that the Finch children think that Boo Radley is some kind of a monster. Or the way people call Atticus Finch is called a nigger-lover. One of my most favorite quotations is that of Martin Luther King Junior. "I have a dream, that one day my children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." People should make judgements of the person's character, not by their appearance, race, religion, sexuality, and morals. One of the main focuses of the book is the Finch children trying to get Boo Radley next door to come out of his house. To them he is a mean monstrous person. But for some reason they seem to think that tormenting him is the best way to occupy their time. In fact, to the whole town the Radley family are mean people that kept to them selves. "There goes the meanest man ever God blew breath into," said Calpurnia (page 12). This shows how mean people can be just by judging others by their outsides. What gives these people the right to make these kind of conclusions without ever even meeting the person(s). Later in the book the Finch children find presents hidden in a tree next to the Radley place. They can't figure out who would set these nice gifts out for them. Later they find out that is Boo Radley. He is just trying to be nice and other people won't accept his original approach on life. At one point in the book the children decide to go up onto the porch to try and get a peak inside the window. Then they see Mr. Radley inside with a shotgun and they ran away. Jem got her pants ripped off on a fence and returned later to retrieve them and she found them mended and laying over the fence. Another example of how nice the Radley's are is when it was shivering cold outside someone places a blanket over Scout's shoulders. Only later does she realize that the act was performed by the mysterious Boo Radley. I have just given multiple examples straight from the book of how the personalities of the person can be radically different from their appearance. That leads back to my thesis of judging people by their character not their outer shell. One more maddening incident in the book that made me just furious when I

Miller, Kant, and Aristotle on fostering relationship between Great grandpa and his grandson Essay

Making moral decisions can be difficult sometimes and it is not easy to reach a certain conclusion. Philosophical decisions are much more complex and take time to evlaute decisions in life. Rather, the reasoning behind a moral decision is much more intricate, requiring a medley of sources to arrive at a decision. Take, for example, a situation in which a father has to decide whether or not to foster a relationship between his three year old son and his son’s dying great grandfather. Is the son having a relationship with his great grandfather worth risking the pain his son would have to endure due to his great grandfather’s death? Or, would the pain be too scarring and ruin the life of such a young mind? To help resolve his dilemma, the father might turn to the philosophical giants: Mill, Kant, and Aristotle. Mill would agree to foster the relationship. However, to arrive at this decision, certain assumptions were made. Mill would advise to foster the relationship if the great grandfather would live a couple more years. Mill’s basis for moral decision making rests on whether the sum of all pleasures outweighs the sum of all pains. Thus, in order for Mill to agree to foster the relationship, it must be stated that the relationship between the great grandfather and the son is a good healthy relationship and that the death does not cause any permanent or enduring psychological damage on neither the son, nor the father, nor the great grandfather. After all, Mill’s theory demands that one take into account the sum of all the pleasures and all the pains. Also, the son might also gain the power to deal with death with this relationship. Mill would then consider good results from this relationship. Therefore, if everyone receives more pleasure from the relationship between the great grandfather and the son than pain (even after death) then Mill would advise to foster the relationship. Kant, on the other hand, discards the notion of consequences. Kant’s advice in this situation is harder to decipher because his theory is based on internalization and motivation. Kant would agree to foster the relationship if the father’s motivation for the relationship is purely the relationship in itself. In other words, it requires that the father be treating the great grandfather as an end rather than as a means. If the father wants to foster the relationship merely because he feels it might result in a larger endowment for his son, then Kant would no longer advice fostering the relationship. Furthermore, Kant might support fostering a relationship if the father’s decision to not foster a relationship was to avoid the pain of death. The inverse is also true. Kant might advice asking the great grandfather (not the three year old son, for he is too young to reason) whether he would like a relationship with his great grandson. Then, the father would be treating him as an end, not as a means. It is also important to take into consideration whether it is a father’s duty to foster a relationship between a great grandfather and his son. Kant’s advice only holds assuming that both the great grandfather and son are generally good and the relationship that would form between them is also good. In summation, Kant’s theory bases itself on internal motivation. As he himself stated, oftentimes, the layers are too difficult to peel to arrive at the true motivation. Aristotle would advise fostering some relationship with the father (this would be the virtuous mean). Aristotle would argue that not fostering a relationship and fostering too much of a relationship would be two extremes. Aristotle advises that one must find a mean in between the two extremes and that is the right relationship. Moreover, Aristotle believes that morality can be learned through observation. Therefore, a three year old child would have much to gain from the experience of an 84 year-old great grandfather. This relationship might help the son reach his human purpose, or excellence. Once again, Aristotle would only advise any relationship if the relationship is good and both the great grandfather and the son enjoy it. Perhaps a better approach to arriving at a decision requires a combination of both Kant’s and Aristotle’s philosophy. The decision continues to run on the assumption, of course, that both the great grandfather and the son are good people and that a good and healthy relationship would thus form. The decision to foster a relationship must first be decided based on the motivation. In other words, a relationship should only be fostered if the father wants a relationship only because of the relationship and not as a means of achieving a greater good. However, fostering too much of a relationship might force unnecessary pains. Thus, a mean of some relationship should be followed. For example, a relationship of one hour on the weekends might be beneficial. For, once a relationship would form, it would not be strong enough to completely devastate any party involved.

Morality And The Moral Theories - 1137 Words

Meaning of the phrases ï ¿ ½the ends justifies the means’ The phrase ï ¿ ½the ends justifies the means’ is a very popular in many fields and is also used in our day to day living. However, it is more used when talking about morality issues whereby it means that the morality of an action or behavior depends entirely on the result of that action and not the behavior or action itself. This is phrase that can be viewed different by proponent of different moral theories. A consequentialist theorist will agree with this phrase. For example, if one tells a lie to save the other person from grief, the action of telling the eye is viewed as good. Another example is whereby a person kills the other in order to save the others. The two actions though they may be viewed as going against the moral values in the society will be viewed as right because they lead to positive results, meaning that the ends justifies the means. In overall, what it means is that it does not matter the means used to achieve certain goals regardless of how bad or violent they may be. On the other hand, a deontologist would hold the killing as wrong regardless as to whether the results are positive or negative. This means that there are actions or behaviors that are wrong no matter what. For example, like in the above examples, regardless of whether lying saves another person grief or killing a person saves other people lives, those two actions are wrong regardless of their positive results (Waller, 2005). An informedShow MoreRelatedThe Theory Of Morality And Moral Subjectivism1055 Words   |  5 Pages Morality Since the beginning of time man has questioned and debated how we as humans should conduct ourselves within a society. As time passes more theories are created, and adjusted. 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