Introduction
The Great Depression was the most significant setback that has ever happened to our global economy since the middle of the 18th era. Poverty was widespread, and countries were full of suffering because of the decline of cod princes that made it impossible to achieve. This decline affected everyone from fishers to mining and forestry industries because of the layoffs and wage cuts. The programs that were offered to those laid off were inadequate, leaving many people without food, clothing and necessities even means to support their families.
The Governments of these two nations introduced social welfare services to support and help people to overcome the weakness of their country’s social structures. This essay analyzes the federal social policies that were created in the United States and Canada during and after the Great Depression until the time that economizing occurred.
Federal Social Policies in the United States:
In the United States, the traditional institutions and welfare programs were always in a state of turmoil. Many Americans who have once grown up promoting who the “deserving poor and non-deserving poor”, are now standing in line for relief. This is where relief programs, public and private non-profit organizations became the forefront of receiving an overwhelming number of requests to meet the needs of many individuals.
The Federal Government should not be involved in providing poor relief, but the national crisis required the federal government was in the best position to coordinate public, private and non-profit divisions in society. Senator Huey Long proposed a “share the wealth” program where millionaires would be taxed to fund pensions for anyone over 60 years of age. This program would be funded by income tax, and he took immediate action to create job opportunities. Once the Federal Emergency Relief Act in 1932 was created, they were given primary responsibility for managing the efforts to distribute relief funds.
The economy recession was met by President Hoover, who thought that providing relief programs to people would make them over-dependent on government and turn them away from work ethic. Therefore, he withdrew his prior approaches on the government intervention on the economy, wherein 1932, he established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) (Adolph, 2014). The RFC would be used to lend $3 billion dollars to railroads and banks. In July 1932, the RFC made the first relief and ensured the progress of all the public projects worth $300 million.
Eleanor Roosevelt became a strong advocate of the major programs located within the Works Progress Administration which replaced the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The WPA was the forerunner of modern student financial assistance, this was encouraging young high school and college students to finish their education which will lead to full time jobs in the future. The Roosevelt Administration did lead to the Wagner-Steahall Housing Act passing in the 1937s, this provided low interest loan to local government to develop public housing.
Federal Social Policies in Canada
Tuesday October 29th, 1929 was the day the stock market crash in the United States, countries everywhere, rich and poor sank into an economic recession known as the Great Depression. Canada was hit particularly hard. The social security system in Canada was greatly shaped by initiatives taken before 1964 and 1971. The social assistance system was set up with the passage of the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), which provides federal, cost-sharing financing for provincial social assistance or more known as welfare. At the same time that CAP was introduced “Active manpower policy” was also announced. This program involved a strong government role, including counselling, training, support for mobility and community economic development (Adolph, 2014). At the end of this time period, closer to 1971, there was a major expansion of unemployment insurance, this has become and remained the defining Canadian social security program for adults.
The federal tax policy has also played an important role in influencing social policy both direct and indirectly. The child tax credit policy that relates to options like public safety, safety, and social housing.
In Canada, the terms social policy, social security policy and more recently called human resources development policy. Social policy includes income support, seniors’ benefits, unemployment insurance, tax credits, education, health and social housing. The Canadian unemployment insurance represented both the strengths and weaknesses of social security.
Similarities between United States and Canada during the Great Depression:
Canada suffered a major depression from 1929 to 1939. This Great Depression is similar to the United States, however, Canada did not recover, while in the United States they recovered in 1937. Due to the decline of output, productivity, and employment, two countries recovered in different ways, Canada’s productivity did not return to trend as it did in the United States, while employment recovered more.
Both countries established the “New Deal” type of federal social policies to provide support for the unemployed. In the United States, Roosevelt used the federal government to be the flurry of federal agencies that offered support to the poor, created jobs, helped recovery of damaged farms, and improved public lands (Rose, 2016). Canada had a similar approach, expect that provinces fought to establish federal programs.
The difference between the two policy approaches in the two countries was that while the industrial output of the United States recovered quickly, there was still little labor force up until the 1930’s. However, in Canada the labor force picked back up and went back to the pre-depression because of the rural work projects. This “New Deal” also had some discrepancies in that the ones under Roosevelt in America and Bennett in Canada were striking. Bennett failed to stabilize in Canada, because of failure to manage labor camps. Bennett wanted to copy Roosevelt’s New Deal but was voted out by the Canadians before the programs were completed.
Conclusion
The Great Depression in Canada and the United States were quite similar, even though the recovery of the two were different. There was a rapid recovery in the United States with productivity with the slow recovery of output, while in Canada the production recovered quickly with slow improvement in productivity, with the federal social policies accounting for this distinction between the two. The events that took place during the Great Depression would shape more than a generation in both countries when it came to political culture. The popularity of the social welfare polices used, as well as the public intervention in the economy, were the only few ways in which the decade would transform these countries.
If the Great Depression happened today, many people would not be able to survive, marriages would crumble, divorce rates would become even higher than they are today, unemployment would rise, and the economy would generally plummet because of the loss in industries. What happened in the 1930s is quite possibly a prediction of what might happen in the future, given the current increase in the low term unemployment, over dependency and increased poverty that has resulted in the economic recessions.
2019-2-10-1549771687