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.