New Deal Vs Great Society Essay Examples

The New Deal was a policy coined by President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933 as his campaign policy of eradicating current and future depressions the country was undergoing and economic reforms and recovery that could have made the country experience a revolution (Hiltzik 18). Roosevelt came at a time when unemployment rate was at its highest and many citizens were facing grave danger of losing their homes and farms. The business and agricultural sectors were performing badly as people no longer saw it wise to save or had hardly anything to save.
Further, the New Deal crafted policies brought tremendous changes in the education sector and some of the educational programs we have today were as a result of it. The Roosevelt’s think tank christened by the media as Brain Trust worked hard to reconstruct new effective educational standards that would in future impacts on efficiency of government organizations and private sector (Hiltzik 34). The presidential think tank knew that the future of the country lied on the kind of courses its schools taught. Hence, the New Deal sought to give a standard play level ground for all its citizens. However, with the Great Society philosophy by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s in 1960s, the education sector was lightly taken as the government focused more on job creation and uplifting the living standards of the bottom line class at the economic ladder (Andrew 32).
Another distinct difference between the New Deal and the Great Society is that the two presidents found the country in different states. Franklin in 1933 found the country in a near total anarchy and with his skills as a problem solver, he was able to convert the idle young men energy into productive nation building force (Hiltzik 52). While Franklin Roosevelt was welcomed by great depression and thus had to look for ways to solve it, President Johnson found a country with a great rift of inequality between the rich and the poor. Johnson also wanted to empower all people in the country irrespective of their race or social standing.

The New Deal Reforms

The new deal was drafted to champion the right of the entire American citizens especially those who had been sidelined in sharing the national cake. Therefore, President Roosevelt and his team introduced new intervention programs that enhanced economic growth and brought a paradigm shift to school programs (Hiltzik 27). Since many schools at the time practiced racial segregation where they shunned blacks and other minority groups the new policies required everyone to access equal opportunities and be treated personally not as a racial group. To ensure the new deal fruits were achievable the drafters carried comprehensive research that pointed out the main underlying problem that had made the country not progress as expected (Hiltzik 35).
In addition, under the new deal an institution by the name National Recovery Administration was created to offer a hand to the poor Americans secure jobs and hence made many industries to open up as there was plenty of labor force. Further, the NRA helped in mitigating the unemployment rate and redeemed the citizens from the great depression (Hiltzik 41).

Great Society Reforms

President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1963 after assuming the presidency was faced with a great challenge of eliminating or reducing the large gaps between the many poor people and the few rich citizens (Andrew 13). The economic gaps were so wide that the poor were characterized from every race in the country ranging from Hispanics, whites, Indians and blacks. It was this rainbow of poverty that made President Johnson to declare a personal war on destituteness. Majority of the citizens were hungry and required support to boost their economic standards. Since, Johnson had experienced the ugly side of poverty during the depression period he initiated great projects geared towards giving needy citizens a hand to rise again (Andrew 16). Through the great society laws, President Johnson was able to uphold public broadcasting, strengthen civil rights, and introduce Medicare, aid to education, Medicaid, and rural and urban development. The growing economy coupled by the robust legislation aided many Americans to cross the poverty line. Additionally, the enacted civil rights laws eradicated racial segregation in interstate commerce, housing, the workplace and public facilities (Andrew 22). It was also through Johnson’s presidency that all American were allowed to vote as he banned retrogressive voting rights acts that had been active in some Southern states. The great society acts brought reforms in immigration system where by the diffident national quotas were stopped (Andrew 26).

Conclusion

Both the New Deal and the Great Society has similarities in that they were aspiring to help the American citizenry out of their suffering. Also both desired to raise a just society where all people were treated equally. Nonetheless, they had different ways of achieving their goals and the things they gave priority. President Roosevelt prioritized on education and sought to end racial discrimination in all schools where every person irrespective of his/her race would have an equal opportunity to be admitted. On the other side, President Johnson due his enmity with poverty sought to first empower the American bottom class people economically. He introduced many of the social programs enjoyed today such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Works Cited

Andrew John A. Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society. New York: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.
Hiltzik, Michael. The New Deal: A Modern History. Boston: Free Press, 2011.