The New Deal was created to deal with a bunch of problems such as the banking crisis during the Great Depression. The Great Depression affected everyone in many different ways. The rich
people had no impact at all and were ignorant of the suffering of others.
Almost 40% of the country never faced real hardship during those times. Most
people, on the other hand, did face hardship in some way. By the time of
Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, the unemployment rate was close to
25%. Unstable during the 1930s, it never fell below 14.3% until 1941.
The Depression changed families in many ways. The divorce rate dropped
suddenly and the birth rate dramatically dropped for the first time in the
history of America. During the Presidency of Herbert Hoover, families’ income
dropping 35% in those four years to $15M, and due to this 1.5M men abandoned
their wife’s. Many people had to turn to family and friends for help. Few
people turned to the government for help.
Many minorities had no to little benefits from New Deal programs. The "last
hired, first fired" were the first ones hurt by the job layoffs. In order
to save the Democratic Party and pass New Deal legislation, the programs
targeted unemployed white males. The New deal provided relief and jobs to many
people. Males of color, on the other hand, had to settle for separate low pay
or were shut out completely. Since there weren’t enough jobs in the Southwest,
for white men, there was an illegal deportation of 400,000 Mexican -Americans.
Native Americans had a separate New deal and had some economic and some
political recognition.
