Lesson 7 Blog Essay: Great Depression

                I think that the Great Depression was hurt more than the government rather than improved by the government. Government intervention played a big role in turning the economy for the worst. Some of the programs dropped the economy and raised taxes which put a toll on businesses and people in America. The economy was not saved by government intervention. The NRA and the New Deal both made the economy suffer even more. The NRA caused the cost of business to go up by 40% which was something the economy didn’t need for recovery. Benjamin M. Anderson said “NRA wasn’t a revival measure. It was an antirevival measure.” The NRA raised wages and lowered industrial production by 25%. Another program that hurt the economy that was put on by the government was the New Deal. Albert Nock described the New Deal as a nation-wide, State-managed mobilization of inane buffoonery and aimless commotion.” In 1932 it hiked up income tax rates to 63%. The New Deal was responsible for prolonging the Great Depression. In this long economic down-turn the government’s best bet was to stay out of the way and let the market correct itself. However, it intervened and caused things during the Great Depression to get worse and to last longer. Therefore, saying that the Great Depression was resolved by government intervention is a myth.

My City

            If I were to create my own city, then I would have to make sure that there would be room for it to grow. Economies flourish more when there are rights and laws to help protect markets. In the I, Pencil, Leonard Read said “if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing.’ For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves in creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand-that is, in absence of governmental or any coercive master-minding—then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people. Freedom is impossible without this faith.” If we can create a free-market society, then we won’t have one dominating way of developing our economy. In a free-market society we are able to explore, invent, and share with our own free agency. Along with a free-market society comes property rights. With property rights we are able to keep what is our own and we are able to use it how we wish. Entrepreneurs need a free-market society and property rights so that they can flourish. When we have a creative and wealthy society entrepreneurs are able to expound their ideas. When there is economic freedom entrepreneurs are inspired by the invisible hand and able to strive to solve problems and increase our standard of living. In my city the laws of the U.S. constitution would apply. The Constitution is a big reason as to why we are so successful as a country. The Constitution limited the federal government from intervening in the economy. Therefore, if the government can’t intervene, then free agency and creativity can take place and our economy can grow and develop. The Constitution was also able to create a large landmass and allow trade to flow freely. If I had the Constitution, I would be able to establish trade and allow markets to trade and develop more knowledge. And if the city was created, there would have to be competition. If there was competition, then entrepreneurs and other businesses would strive to beat the other. A little bit of greed is good in a developing economy. When a little profit is offered it motivates people to do better and greed can make people work together. All in all, as long as people have their agency and are being motivated, then economy can grow and develop off of people trying to be better and trying to better society.