The Right Way to Deal with the Economy: Obama Vs FDR

History books often state that FDR saved America from the Great Depression. Indeed, the theory of Keynesian economics supports this opinion; basically that a strong government intervention is justified and even warranted at certain times when the market plunges. Obviously, this theory is a decidedly liberal approach to fixing a slump. The other side would be to have as minimal federal involvement as possible (at least in the traditional conservative sense) and let the Market inevitably rebound. The recent government bailouts and stimulus packages surely follow the Keynesian principles of macronomics (even though the first bailouts were introduced by Bush's "republican" administration). With the recent 787 billion dollar bailouts and the like made by President Obama's Administration, one would hope that he will be the 21st century's FDR and scoop America out of the current recession with high-minded macronomics. However, did Roosevelt really fix the Great Depression? And just how similar are these two Presidents?

The first question is relatively easy to address. The various jobs and projects created in the 1930's helped modernize our nation. But no, that wasn't what brought us out of the crash. A dialogue from the film "Schindler's List" says it all:

Oscar Schindler: In every business I tried, I can see now, it wasn't me that failed. Something was missing. Even if I'd known what it was, there's nothing I could have done about it because you can't create this thing. And it makes all the difference in the world between success and failure.

Emilie Schindler: Luck?

Oscar Schinder: War.

Though Schindler was of course talking about personal investments, not the upturn of a whole country's market, the same solution held true with America. It was World War Two that got us back on our feet and then some. The war machine galvanized our production and gave us the push to capitalize on our resources and create the products that were needed for the fight. The economy needed a common goal that could direct virtually every industry, every advancement in science, and every ounce of manpower toward defeating Hitler's armies. Roosevelt was a mediocre war time leader at best, so it wasn't his decisions that regenerated the economy, it was the natural advancement of conflict versus the business world.

In terms of the second question: Are Obama and Roosevelt similar when it comes to their plans of boosting the market, the answer lies within the key differences between what we have going on now and The New Deal. First of all, the reason for the market collapse in 1929 and the current meltdown were that one was a result of simply stock market failure whereas the other was a result of defaulting sub-prime loans. The scope of the two plans are dissimilar as well. Although perhaps the number of detailed plans of Obama's administration on the topics of bailouts come two a much bigger pile of paper than could've been found on Roosevelt's desk, the current plans don't cover anywhere the amount of ground that the ones of the 1930's did. But perhaps the biggest difference between the two Presidential financial plans is that FDR focused money on Federal programs and institutions whereas Obama directs the money toward corporations. In short, FDR kept the government's money where it belonged: within the Federal Government.

It is without a doubt that The Great Depression is linked to today's crisis because of immoral (and unintelligent) tactics. However, rather than sacrifice the ideals that the United States of America were founded on, let's leave a distinct separation between private business and the business of the state. Rather than heavily tax anything and everyone (specifically the upper-middle class) in order to pay for floundering corporations, let true capitalism take hold. Even if Roosevelt's plan actually worked and World War Two didn't come along at the right time, and even if Obama was similar to Roosevelt, federal meddling strays much farther to the left than to the economic policies the ideal America should exhibit.