History of United States Since 1876
Introduction
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a 32nd American president who was born on January 1882 in Hyde Park, New York in a prominent family (Roberts 8). He was the son of James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. Franklin went abroad when he was 3 years old and between age of 7 and 15 he used to spend several months every year in Britain, Germany as well as France where his parents were socializing with their European counterparts.
Before Franklin joined formal school he was studying at home where he was mastering languages and other subjects. He later joined Groton School in 1896 (Roberts 18).Groton school like any other prestigious boarding school in the United States resembled public schools which offered classical curriculum of Latin, German, English Greek as well as French languages. While in this school, Franklin learnt the gentleman Christian ideals of caring to the less fortunate from the headmaster of the school, a virtue he applied throughout his life. He married his wife by the name Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905 with whom he had 6 children (Roberts 21).
He joined politics in 1911 where he was elected to serve as a New York state senate. Later he became the navy assistant secretary when Woodrow Wilson was the president of the United States. In 1920 he was nominated to become the vice president of the United States but Calvin Coolidge defeated him. His political career came to a stand still for a number of years in 1921 when he was stricken by polio that cost him his legs. After returning to his political life, Franklin put the name of Alfred E Smith in the nomination list during Democratic National Convention of 1924 (Pederson). Later Smith requested Franklin to vie for governor seat in New York during 1928 election.
After the election he won and he served as a reform governor between 1929 and 1932. At this time he helped in enactments of programs that dealt with Great Depression that occurred while he was in office as governor. Franklin defeated his Republic counterpart in 1932 and he become the 32nd president of the United States during the time which the country was facing serious economic problems (Pederson). Being motivated by his personal victory over polio, Franklin applied his persistent optimism as well as activism to renew United States national spirits. He was the longest President and he remained in office for 12 years from 1933 to 1945 (Pederson).
He ruled the country during two great times in the United States history. During the first 100 days in office, he spearheaded major laws and issued executive orders that constituted several programs that were designed to provide job opportunities to the unemployed and help the economy to recover (Pederson). His government was intending to achieve this by regulating Wall Street banks, transportation and agriculture sector. The economy grew at a faster rate between 1933 and 1937 but it later went into deep recession (Pederson).
After he was elected a senator in 1911, he started pondering the role of government and the individuals in a society. While giving speech in Troy, New York he stated that individuals have duty to the community and government should help individuals to fulfill those duties. Franklin believed that workers and business owners must cooperate and that trusts and monopolies were evil if they were benefiting a few peoples in expense of the majority. His political ideas were based on his religious beliefs of good and evil. In addition his political ideas were based on the problems that farmers were undergoing through because most of his constituents were farmers and they faced many problems (Jeremy 26).
The author was responding to the great economic depression that struck many countries in the world, United States being one of them. This depression started in 1929 to 1939 and it paralyzed many economic sectors in the country such as banks, insurance companies, agriculture among others. The Great depression had devastating impacts on all countries irrespective of their economic status. Personal income, tax as well profits which are the main sources of governments revenue in many countries decreased at a very high rate. These economic phenomena also caused massive unemployment to millions of people, increasing poverty levels because majority of people could not afford basic commodities due to increased prices.
The author stated that even if the government spends billion dollars on public expenditure, the problem of unemployment would not be solved. This case is very true and no matter how much money the government can source and inject it to the economy, the problem of inflation cannot be solved. This is because the nation currency has lost value and bringing in more money to the economy will worsen the situation. Injecting more money into the economy would lead to persistent increase of goods and services prices thereby making majority of people not to afford them.
The author also stated that farmers were producing more they can consume and factories were producing excess goods yet the condition of the country was still worse. In economic terms, this means that the demand of goods that are produced is very low because most people cannot afford to pay the price that is charged on goods and services. When it comes to international business, this could mean that the country is producing goods at a very high cost as compared to other countries. This implies that the international demand would therefore decline because not many people will afford the price and those countries that import from this country will import from other countries that are selling the same commodities at a lower price.
The author is explaining how the government intends to curb the inflation crisis in United States. He suggests various measures that the government intends to apply to solve the crisis by enacting various legislations that solve the current situation and reoccurrence in the future. This shows that the government is focused on the long term solutions rather than the short terms solutions. The author further states that after two months the situation had already started to improve and this showed that the solutions were realistic.
The argument is about the solution outlines the problem that is faced by the United States and the solutions the strategies that will be laid down to curb the crisis. The case presented by the author reflects to some degree the modern times economy where agriculture is one of the major source of revenue to many countries. If this sector is in crisis, all the other sectors in the economy are affected. Similarly the same measures that were used to curb inflation are also used in the contemporary times.
Work Cited
Roberts, Jeremy. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Co, 2003. Print.
Pederson, William D. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Internet resource.
