FDR Nearly Destroyed the USA; Obama Using Same Policies

[So Well]

Ominous Parallels

By Walter Williams



People are beginning to compare Barack Obama's administration to the failed administration of Jimmy Carter, but a better comparison is to the Roosevelt administration of the 1930s and '40s. Let's look at it with the help of a publication from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Foundation for Economic Education titled "Great Myths of the Great Depression," by Dr. Lawrence Reed.

During the first year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, he called for increasing federal spending to $10 billion while revenues were only $3 billion. Between 1933 and 1936, government expenditures rose by more than 83 percent. Federal debt skyrocketed by 73 percent. Roosevelt signed off on legislation that raised the top income tax rate to 79 percent and then later to 90 percent. Hillsdale College economics historian and professor Burt Folsom, author of "New Deal or Raw Deal?", notes that in 1941, Roosevelt even proposed a 99.5 percent marginal tax rate on all incomes more than $100,000. When a top adviser questioned the idea, Roosevelt replied, "Why not?"

Roosevelt had other ideas for the economy, including the National Recovery Act. Dr. Reed says: "The economic impact of the NRA was immediate and powerful. In the five months leading up to the act's passage, signs of recovery were evident: factory employment and payrolls had increased by 23 and 35 percent, respectively. Then came the NRA, shortening hours of work, raising wages arbitrarily and imposing other new costs on enterprise. In the six months after the law took effect, industrial production dropped 25 percent."

Blacks were especially hard hit by the NRA. Black spokesmen and the black press often referred to the NRA as the "Negro Run Around," Negroes Rarely Allowed," "Negroes Ruined Again," "Negroes Robbed Again," "No Roosevelt Again" and the "Negro Removal Act." Fortunately, the courts ruled the NRA unconstitutional. As a result, unemployment fell to 14 percent in 1936 and lower by 1937.

Roosevelt had more plans for the economy, namely the National Labor Relations Act, better known as the "Wagner Act." This was a payoff to labor unions, and with these new powers, labor unions went on a militant organizing frenzy that included threats, boycotts, strikes, seizures of plants, widespread violence and other acts that pushed productivity down sharply and unemployment up dramatically. In 1938, Roosevelt's New Deal produced the nation's first depression within a depression. The stock market crashed again, losing nearly 50 percent of its value between August 1937 and March 1938, and unemployment climbed back to 20 percent. Columnist Walter Lippmann wrote in March 1938 that "with almost no important exception every measure (Roosevelt) has been interested in for the past five months has been to reduce or discourage the production of wealth."

Roosevelt's agenda was not without its international admirers. The chief Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, repeatedly praised "Roosevelt's adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies" and "the development toward an authoritarian state" based on the "demand that collective good be put before individual self-interest." Roosevelt himself called Benito Mussolini "admirable" and professed that he was "deeply impressed by what he (had) accomplished."

FDR's very own treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, saw the folly of the New Deal, writing: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!" The bottom line is that Roosevelt's New Deal policies turned what would have been a three- or four-year sharp downturn into a 16-year affair.

The 1930s depression was caused by and aggravated by acts of government, and so was the current financial mess that we're in. Do we want to repeat history by listening to those who created the calamity? That's like calling on an arsonist to help put out a fire.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williamns081711.php3

Few people know about the wreckage of Roosevelt's policies. Maybe it is because 90% of us went to government schools and they don't teach this truth.

[máirtín]

I have an opinion about this that I will not share here until this thread is clearly labeled as OT.

[Vader]

Reading Walter Williams?

He's a brilliant guy. Looks like there's hope for you, yet!

[AmIawake]

"About the Mackinac Center
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to improving the quality of life for all Michigan residents by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions."

from http://www.mackinac.org/1668

Please explain how they can be nonpartisan research and educational institute given their participation in various lawsuits which clearly take the pro-business/conservative point-of-view. Use your favorite search engine and the terms Mackinac Center lawsuit if you can't take my word for it.

Their research is biased and in many cases flawed, find another source.

[BlackSpinner]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/gue ... _blog.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opini ... ml?_r=2&hp

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/14-3

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/1 ... lp00000009

And for something much more interesting Hic bene futui

[So Well]

I have an opinion about this that I will not share here until this thread is clearly labeled as OT.

I think that one sentence clearly explains the drift of your opinion. You think the members of the forum are too stupid to read this post title:

FDR Nearly Destroyed the USA; Obama Using Same Policies

and not understand that it is a history lesson in the middle of a CPAP forum. You are afraid they will read the post and adjust their CPAP pressure to something between 1936 and 1939 and blow their lungs out.

Therefore, since you think people are unable to take care of themselves you favor a big central government that meddles in our everyday lives and Roosevelt, Obama, and Keynes are among your heroes.

How far off am I?

[So Well]

"About the Mackinac Center
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to improving the quality of life for all Michigan residents by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions."

from http://www.mackinac.org/1668

Please explain how they can be nonpartisan research and educational institute given their participation in various lawsuits which clearly take the pro-business/conservative point-of-view. Use your favorite search engine and the terms Mackinac Center lawsuit if you can't take my word for it.

Their research is biased and in many cases flawed, find another source.

Why don't you address some of the points in Walter's article instead of making a blanket condemnation of a group of people? Or would that show the intellectual failures of your opinions?

What is wrong with being pro-business? Don't you work? Don't you want anyone to work? Don't you use products and services that businesses provide? Don't you invest in a 401-k, IRA, or other investment form that depends on a pro-business climate to give you a decent return? Or are you a hermit that lives off the land deep in a Federal forest?

[steamfan]

Why don't you take the political drivel somewhere that welcomes it?

[mck]

GREAT ARTICLE . Wish people will pay more attention and be well informed before the go out to vote.

[Slartybartfast]

God bless Walter Williams.

I guess what we're experiencing must be the "change" part of "Hope and Change." I'm still looking for the "hope" part.

[AmIawake]

"About the Mackinac Center
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to improving the quality of life for all Michigan residents by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions."

from http://www.mackinac.org/1668

Please explain how they can be nonpartisan research and educational institute given their participation in various lawsuits which clearly take the pro-business/conservative point-of-view. Use your favorite search engine and the terms Mackinac Center lawsuit if you can't take my word for it.

Their research is biased and in many cases flawed, find another source.

Why don't you address some of the points in Walter's article instead of making a blanket condemnation of a group of people? Or would that show the intellectual failures of your opinions?

What is wrong with being pro-business? Don't you work? Don't you want anyone to work? Don't you use products and services that businesses provide? Don't you invest in a 401-k, IRA, or other investment form that depends on a pro-business climate to give you a decent return? Or are you a hermit that lives off the land deep in a Federal forest?

He based his article on a publication from said Mackinac Center. Their research is biased and in many cases flawed. Which part of that don't you understand? I know how to critically think. But I don't come here for politics, I come here for help with sleep apnea. Why don't you respect that concept?

[SleepyT]

God bless Walter Williams.

I guess what we're experiencing must be the "change" part of "Hope and Change." I'm still looking for the "hope" part.

Slarty, you misunderstood! They meant Dope with change....not hope and change....

[WestCoastCdnGrl]

I have an opinion about this that I will not share here until this thread is clearly labeled as OT.

I think that one sentence clearly explains the drift of your opinion. You think the members of the forum are too stupid to read this post title:

FDR Nearly Destroyed the USA; Obama Using Same Policies

and not understand that it is a history lesson in the middle of a CPAP forum. You are afraid they will read the post and adjust their CPAP pressure to something between 1936 and 1939 and blow their lungs out.

Therefore, since you think people are unable to take care of themselves you favor a big central government that meddles in our everyday lives and Roosevelt, Obama, and Keynes are among your heroes.

How far off am I?

You are missing the point... this topic is not relevant to OSA & xPAP, thus Martin's refusal to post his opinion here until the Title is marked with an Off Topic designation.

Martin is not saying that your post is not welcome here (it is, as long as it conforms to the TOS), but what he is saying is that as a non-OSA/non-xPAP specific topic, it should be marked as such, so that those who have no interest in the thread can scroll on by. Once the post gets the requested designation, I'm sure that Martin would happily engage in a political/historical debate with you and anyone else who cares to share their opinion.

IF your OP wasn't welcome here, there wouldn't be 10 other replies and there would have been a call out to the Mods to delete the thread or it would die an ugly death (i.e. it would just float away to a back page).

[So Well]

He based his article on a publication from said Mackinac Center.

Walter Williams based his article on a lifetime of working, studying, teaching, and observing what works and what doesn't. He has worked in different businesses since he was a teenager and is now prized as a college professor and writer.

If you mistook him for a hack reporter who read one publication and made an article out of it to meet his daily requirement, you are badly wrong.

Walter grew up in a public housing project in Philadelphia and was an astute youth. He observed what works and what doesn't first hand. He saw new central government social programs destroy families and lives.

Their research is biased and in many cases flawed. Which part of that don't you understand? I know how to critically think.

In your first post you made "pro-business" an accusation. If you aren't pro-business, what the heck are you? Do you realize this forum is provided by a businessman?

Did you eat anything from a grocery store today? Did you drive a car? Did you use a computer? Did you wear any clothes? Do you know that all these things were produced by businesses?

What alternative do you propose to replace pro-business?

But I don't come here for politics, I come here for help with sleep apnea.

There is a very easy solution. Don't read or post in this thread.

Suit yourself.

[So Well]

You are missing the point... this topic is not relevant to OSA & xPAP, thus Martin's refusal to post his opinion here until the Title is marked with an Off Topic designation.

Martin is not saying that your post is not welcome here (it is, as long as it conforms to the TOS), but what he is saying is that as a non-OSA/non-xPAP specific topic, it should be marked as such, so that those who have no interest in the thread can scroll on by. Once the post gets the requested designation, I'm sure that Martin would happily engage in a political/historical debate with you and anyone else who cares to share their opinion.

How do you know Martin's point? Are you his personal spokesman? Has he contacted you and asked you to speak on his behalf in this thread?