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The Great Depression transformed the American political and economic landscape.
The Depression strengthened the federal presence in American life, producing such innovations as national old age pensions, unemployment compensation, aid to dependent children, public housing, federally subsidized school lunches, insured bank deposits, the minimum wage, and stock market regulation. It fundamentally altered labor relations, producing a revived labor movement and a national labor policy protective of collective bargaining. It transformed the farm economy by introducing federal price supports and rural electrification. Above all, the Great Depression produced a fundamental transformation in public attitudes. It led Americans to view the federal government as the ultimate protector of public well-being.
Before the Great Depression, people refused to go on government welfare except as a last resort. The newspapers published the names of all those who received welfare payments, and people thought of welfare as a disgrace. However, in the face of starving families at home, some men signed up for welfare payments. For most it was a very painful experience.
On March 16, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in the United States. He created large-scale national programs aimed at helping the poor and needy that consumed nearly 1.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). The programs were meant to be temporary, short-term investments. Instead they have become permanent fixtures in government programming and spawned the creation of dozens more programs over the years. Today, spending on welfare programs (adjusted for inflation) is 13 times greater than it was in 1964.
Congress should ask pointed questions about why the war on poverty continues to escalate more than four decades after it began. The Obama Administration’s expansion of the welfare state, in combination with its effort to define poverty up, does not bode well for economic freedom in the United States.
On May 6, 1929, Joseph Stalin predicted to a small group of American communists that America would experience a revolutionary crisis and that the American communist party should be ready to assume the leadership of the “impending class struggle in America.”k
When the Depression struck, Mexican-Americans were accused of taking jobs away from “real” Americans and of unfairly burdening local relief efforts. Some were “encouraged” to return to Mexico.k
In the mountain communities of Appalachia, whole families were reduced to dandelions and blackberries for their basic diet. Some children were so hungry, they chewed on their own hands.g
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930 increased U.S. tariffs which, in turn, decreased international trade (especially in the farming sector) and helped spread the Great Depression worldwide.j As it spread, it became partly responsible for Nazism in Germany and for WWII (1939-1945).f
Originally posted by neo96
The welfare state includes many things that what are considered to be "Called welfare" money for nothing is welfare
Social Securty,medicare,medicaid,student loans.free homes and then figure in the other government subsidies more than half this nations population is receiving some sort of government check and that isn't enough that want to add more.
Everyone knows that it is beyond ridiculous and the kicker here they borrow money from China because no amount of taxation already collected can pay for those programs.
Over 150 trillion dollars is the cost of the welfare state and people just can't comprehend that little fact because if they truly did they would cut spending.
Originally posted by AnIntellectualRedneck
The welfare state in the U.S. includes bailing out banks and paying with our tax dollars and blood to help countries overseas.
If we're going to stop helping our own, then we need to stop helping everybody else as well, and preferably first.
Heck, if we stopped helping everybody out, then maybe we could actually afford to help our own.edit on 21-11-2011 by AnIntellectualRedneck because: (no reason given)