What Problems Did The Government Face During The Great Depression

Prior to the 1930’s, the United States federal government often played a very small role in the lives of American citizens. There were few policies in place to help solve problems, and the people were responsible for their own lives and most issues they came across. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the government was forced to take a look at how it was handling problems and find new ways to ensure an economic depression of this scale never happened again. The government expanded greatly during the Great Depression and World War II by enacting many policies to solve issues brought on by the stock market crash, and taking control of the economy to ensure stability, due to a failing economy and sudden war. On October 29, 1929 the United
People lost their homes as well as their jobs and were forced to beg for food or work as the “cities quickly spent the little money they had available for poor relief” (Foner, 791). The government, having never faced a crisis such as this one, was forced to come up with a quick plan to solve the problems that had arose. President Hoover quickly became disliked by the American people, as he did little to solve the new issues of poverty that followed the stock market crash. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, ran for election, he easily beat Hoover and gave Americans a bit of hope that maybe he could solve their problems. FDR quickly got to work when he got into office, putting out multiple pieces of legislation to start helping Americans. The first couple of policies FDR put out were the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which gave money to the states to assist the unemployed, and the Civilian Conservative Corps, which gave unemployed men work outdoors to try and encourage optimism about the future of the economy. Roosevelt then put into place his New Deal with the hopes of boosting the economy.
The stock market crashing not only ruined the economy, but also ruined many people's lives. So many people were pushed into poverty that the government had no choice but to get involved. The state of the country was so bad that “the American suicide rate rose to the highest level in the nation’s history, and the birthrate fell to the lowest” (Foner, 791). There was a large amount of unemployment, further ruining the economy and showing a clear need for government involvement. Roosevelt saw this, and once elected, he put many policies in place to solve some of the nations issues. The federal government needed to provide money to the people and the states to make up for what they had lost, and find a way to stabilize the economy. When World War II began, the unexpected mobilization of the work force pulled the American economy out of the depression, but did not deter the government from getting further involved. With so many fighting in the war, people back home were able to get jobs they could not before. The government was able to encourage the work force, and took over industries so they could be used to produce materials for the war. There was a need to keep the economy going, as it slowly went back to normal. The government took advantage when the war started, seeing an opportunity to recover the economy to its former glory. The creation of new policies and federal agencies not only assisted