In 1933 president, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) . The WPA was an executive decision signed by Roosevelt during the Great Depression in hopes that it would help relief the life of many Americans.
Although there were many reforms that were passed during the Great Depression to help Americans, the WPA became one of the most well known reforms. The WPA provided jobless Americans with a paid job in order to help with starvation as well as help people slowly get back on their feet. Before the WPA was created there were about 10 million Americans that were jobless and in need. However, two years after the WPA was created only 7 million American's remained jobless.
Of course, there was a price to be paid by Americans for this tremendous financial help from the WPA. In return for receiving finical help people that worked for the WPA would build schools, hospitals, highways, airports, and playgrounds. They would also help entertainment such as plays and art, rise again in American culture by restoring theaters, finding actors, and writers.
The WPA played a huge role in helping the economy go back to normal. Perhaps without the executive acts of President Roosevelt such as the WPA, the economy may not have gotten better by the 1940s. Although, the WPA helped bring America back to where it was, it was suspended by congress in 1943.
Sources: History.com
Interesting! I enjoyed how you talked about the WPA on not just the positives but the negatives, the ups and downs as well. I liked how you explained also how not all people were helped out by this reform and isolated those people because their lives weren't exactly improved as many others. But my question how do you think it help the economy increase and get back to normal what exactly happen because of the reform that helped the economy build up and increase? and What was the WPA suspended in 1943?
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ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting post. You detailed many of the important points about the WPA, and how it really helped in turning around the nation's unemployment problem. While in office, FDR swore to solve the unemployment problem, and this was his solution. One thing that I find interesting was that in 1933, this institution was actually called the Public Work Administration, or PWA, until 1935 when it was renamed the WPA. Although there were many benefits to the WPA, one thing that was not exactly bright was that these works were only temporary jobs- the jobless people would only work on a project for a few months but after that they were still out of a job. Nevertheless, this was a big step in lowering the unemployment rates during the Great Depression.
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