Michael, Tommaso:
>>My Dad was born in 1928 so obviously the Great Depression was well before my time.<<
Well my Dad was born in 1896 and remembered the great depression very well. He lost his home, stock investments, etc. He also lost the few gold coins he had saved for just such an emergency when Mr. Roosevelt confiscated all the privately held gold except rare coins. Those who failed to turn it in could get 10 years in jail. If you want a detailed description of these events, see:
fame.org
All of Roosevelt's make work programs, although helpful and necessary for the many unemployed, didn't really get the economy going again. What did that, of course, was World War II, which I remember as a small child. The economic engines were purring. Everybody had a job and money. Unfortunately you couldn't spend it on a lot of things because of shortages and the "war effort". No cap pistols for me, I remember vividly, because all the metal went into war products.
We could argue whether Roosevelt was morally or ethically right to get us into the war. Could Hitler's monstrous acts have been prevented or stopped if we had not? Japan's cruel and atrocity-laden militarism? I personally believe we had to fight the war for altruistic reasons, but I'm not so sure Mr. Roosevelt's priorities were the same. He was a politician, of course.
Jack |
