HOW FDR RUINED AMERICA

              Franklin D. Roosevelt is often defined as the president who saw America through the great depression and WW2. The fact is that he drove America INTO the great depression, not out of it. The roaring twenties came along, bolstered by a strong post WWI america and president Coolidge laissez-faire attitude towards the market and government. Then in 1929 the stock market collapsed. Banks lost money, people lost jobs, it was a hard time for everyone. People look at the great depression like it was the first recession america had when in fact america had gone through dozens of recessions prior to the 1929 market crash. All these recessions had little, if any, government intervention and lasted no more than 4 years. Now FDR came along promising people 'a chicken in every pot.' His plan to achieve this was to create dozens of new federal departments that would create new jobs by using federal funds to build bridges, roads, etc. All these new programs required money that the government didn't have, so FDR made the bold move of spending money that the government didn't have. FDR got the money from the only place government can. The people. Taxes were hiked up enormously to pay for these programs that were supposed to help people, but instead drove them into deeper poverty. Instead of the market working its way through this difficult time as it had in years past, government interfered and instead of lasting a few months, or a couple years at the most, the depression lasted nearly a decade. Eventually in 1945-'46 congress got rid of excess profit taxes, cut corporate taxes to the bare minimum and cut the top income tax rate to 86%. These rates were still high, but they were the first cuts since the 1920's and businesses felt that they could keep what they earned. The year 1946 was not without ups and downs but entrepreneurs believed they could invest again and be allowed to make money. With freer markets, balanced budgets, and lower taxes the unemployment rate was only 3.9 percent in 1946, and it remained at roughly the same level during the next decade. The Great Depression was over, small thanks to FDR.

              His economic failures, however, were not FDRs greatest crime against America. In 1942 he signed executive order 9066, which allowed the detention of any and all Japanese-Americans out of fear of spying or sabotage (similar orders were carried out by the Nazis and Soviets who also imprisoned people based on their ethnicity/nationality.) 110,000 people were thrown into internment camps, 62% of whom were American citizens. In 1944 the constitutionality of this order was upheld in the supreme court saying that the need of protection against espionage outweighed the rights of the Japanese-Americans. Such an act was a blatant violation of one of the most basic human rights there is. Yet today, Franklin D. Roosevelt is consistently named among the top three best presidents America has had. America is in dire need of a lesson in history and basic economics to see that a man who imprisoned American citizens on illegitimate charges, and dragged the free market down, is not to be idolized as a great man.