Roosevelt's New Deal offered hope for the desperate. We can do the same now | Eric Rauchway
His nation-building work programmes are an unsurpassed example of what governments can do when markets collapse
A larger proportion of Americans have lost their jobs during this pandemic than at any time since the Great Depression. In the UK, unemployment increased to 2.1 million in April, and economists expect millions more people to become unemployed once the furlough scheme ends. The current, acute crisis in unemployment is likely to become a chronic condition that, even if it waxes and wanes, will not remedy itself. Like the Great Depression, it demands intervention not only to resume trade and employment, but also to preserve the institutions we cherish.
The virus will not simply evaporate; many of the jobs that used to exist have already gone, and more will go still. We will have to feel our way to reviving industries in a world altered by fear of contagion. People will want to avoid human contact to a greater degree than ever before, accelerating existing trends toward greater automation and socially distanced work. Economic busts generally foster market consolidation, as bigger operators weather a storm that swamps smaller enterprises. These effects have an inequitable impact, hurting the poor far more than the rich, demonstrating the cruel effects of inept or inactive governments. For all the clamour that the economy is in peril, what remains of democracy is in far greater danger of perishing from this new depression without some form of new New Deal.
Hoover ran for re-election in 1932, claiming his policies had ended the depression and urging voters to be grateful to him. They chose Roosevelt
Related: Despite UK furlough scheme 6 million fear losing their job - study
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