FDR's "New Deal" didn't fix the great depression.

Thank you again, I will make my final argument. My opponent obviously has a different interpretation of the meaning of the subject title "FDR's "New Deal" didn't fix the great depression." I will not waste the audience's time in trying to explain his interpretation, as it is unimportant, so I will continue with my argument that the New Deal was failure. At round one I mentioned a few New Deals programs; I will show a sobering explanation why they failed. I expect my opponent to demonstrate why I am wrong with the examples I have given and, along with the New Deal in total, why they were successful. (1) The National Recovery Act or NIRA. Adam Smith wrote is 1776, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." The NIRA (later shortened to NRA) was ultimately a program that encouraged the formation of monopolies. It made American employers of big companies sit down together and discuss "terms of fair competition", of which they discussed wages, hours of labour, and prices. Traditionally, companies would compete with each other to offer the better product to the consumer; the better company would earn more profit. But with this new act, that was ancient history. What they go out of this act was more than 540 new codes that had the tendency to raise prices, reduce working hours, and remove competition. (1) For example, when the big tire companies got together and decided the "fair" price of their tires, the price of tires skyrocketed. As a result, cars got more expensive and, thus, sales for cars went down. Car sales in 1933 where 1/3 of what they were in 1929. (2) And with artificially high prices for goods under the NRA, many smaller businesses could not afford to stay afloat, charging anything less than the "fair" price was illegal, and if caught the government could shut the company down. Also, there were many crazy regulations under the NRA. For example, when regarding on how to buy a chicken, the customer is not allowed to select the chickens he wants. He had to put his hand in the coop and take the first chicken that comes to hand. (3) The NRA was voted unconstitutional in 1935 and was revoked. (2) The Agricultural Employment Act (AAA) In line with the economists of the era's theory that low prices resulted in the Great Depression, the AAA worked as follows. The farmers would be paid NOT to produce food on parts of their land. Also, the prices of the farmer's products would be adjusted to the price of 1910. Artificially adjusting prices is never a solution, for anything. It always leads to negative consequences, no matter what you deal with. A price is an indicator of supply and demand and adjusting the price imbalances the economy. With millions of acres sitting idle, America had under produced in many crops, hurting thousands of families. People were starving, and FDR wanted to raise the price of food? This is nonsense economics. In 1936 the Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional. (3) The Works Progress Administration. (WPA) The WPA was a massive government public works bureaucracy that gave jobs to millions of the unemployed. However the WPA was inefficient, wasteful, and politicized. The main purpose for the WPA was job creation, not capital creation. Naturally, many works projects created by workers under the WPA were so poorly constructed that they had to be rebuilt. (4) The WPA was also very political. A state by state comparison of spending showed that more money flowed to Democratic "Battleground" states. (5) You could make the argument that the money the workers made in the WPA was good for the economy, as they have more money to spend. This is incorrect however, as the money paid came from taxpayers. It is a simple case of "robbing peter to pay Paul". Simply transferring wealth from one to another doesn't create wealth, it only transfers it. Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" was a failure. It prolonged the depression and likely made it worse, rather than better. Unemployment during the 1933-1940 period averaged about 18% and was as high as 28.3% in March of 1933. By the end of 1938, on the eve of WW2, the U.S. unemployment rate still hovered at just over 18 percent and was higher than it was in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first year in office. Of course WW2 took a large chunk of that unemployed and shipped them overseas, but just because the unemployed was transfered to somewhere else on the planet, that doesn't mean the problem was solved. The New Deal was an inconsistent, wasteful, and political legacy of FDR that served as an expansion of federal power more than an aid to a country. The New Deal is an economic legacy that echoes even today, in wasteful spending and failed economic programs. I think Ronald Reagan put it best when he said "A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life - we'll never see on this earth." I strongly urge the audience to reject the "New Deal" and its purported successes. On this note, I end my last argument. Thank you. (1) Butler Schafer; In Restraint of Trade: the business campaign against competition, 1918-1938 (2) Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest; Ford: Decline and Rebirth. (3) Hadley Arkes; The Return of Georg Sutherland (4) Olsen, Historical Dictionary of the New Deal. Pg. 549 (5) Gavin Wright; The Politics of the New Deal.