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| Source:James Miller Center- President’s Herbert Hoover & Franklin Roosevelt, at FDR’s 1933 presidential inauguration |
“An edited version of President Roosevelt’s sixth fireside chat, delivered September 30, 1934.
Full presidential speeches and transcripts available at:James Miller Center."
From the James Miller Center
President Franklin Roosevelt, did not become President of the United States, to destroy American capitalism. As some Conservatives and Libertarians have suggested. But he became President to save it, by changing it.
Before 1933, when FDR became President, we were essentially a libertarian society, economically, where we were all on our own and if we needed help, we were basically at the mercy of our families, friends and private charity. Had we had a functioning safety net pre-1933, the Great Depression, which essentially lasted for ten years, wouldn’t have been as bad. Because all of those unemployed workers would’ve had some public assistance they could count on. I’m not saying this as a fan of the New Deal, because I’m not.
A safety net, should be designed to empower people to get themselves off of public assistance. Not just pay people while they are on public assistance. But if we had a safety net back then and we had an FDIC with the Stock Market Crash and we were regulating Wall Street and Corporate America properly, not trying to run it, we could’ve saved ourselves a lot of pain from the Great Depression.
So FDR basically ended up trying to create a safety net while people needed it the most. And creating these programs on the fly. FDR, wasn’t trying to turn America into Russia, with a state economy. But more like Europe, with healthy private and public sectors.
FDR didn’t set out to destroy American capitalism, but to save it. By putting in regulations so irresponsible people in business, wouldn’t be able to destroy the economy again. And lead to another Great Depression. And so people who fall through the cracks, can get help and not end up homeless and on the street.
