Recession fears are everywhere, and thus also is the ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Here is where intellectual error–a grave mistake concerning history–haunt our present times. People say we need a new New Deal. What goes unmentioned is that the first one didn’t work. FDR prolonged the depression through his policies, which were, in fact, a major economic calamity for this country that not only forestalled recovery but also seriously compromised economic liberty.
Just in time, we’ve located a large stock of the best book ever written on the FDR presidency. It is called The Roosevelt Myth, by the thrilling and prolific John T. Flynn. It’s hard to imagine but he was originally a supporter of FDR. But he took at careful look at his policies, improved his economic understanding, and came to write the most devastating expose of FDR’s terms in office that has ever appeared.
This edition is a full 437 pages, with an excellent introduction by historian Ralph Raico. We are able to offer this book at the surprising price of $17! It was the best book on FDR when it appeared, and it remains so today. ISBN 0930073282 437 pgs. (hb). Buy now.
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YOu even hear conservatives praising Roosevelt. All you have to do is look at the dates. Unemployment dropped down to 8% the year he got the New Deal passed, and after that, unemployment rose dramatically, stopped only by the War.
Yeah Troy, there are even conservatives who are ignorant of the facts of history. Imagine that! Unemployment (figures) dropped so low because FDR was giving the formally unemployed people make-work jobs and so these people were no longer considered unemployed. It doesn’t necessarily follow that these so-called jobs contributed anything to the economy, on the contrary, because FDR created these phony jobs, the salaries of these people were paid with money taken by force from those who could scarce afford to part with it. Unlike freedom, FDR’s brand of economic manipulations cost the economy rather than contributed to it.
But thanks for playing.
It’s hard,if not impossible, to imagine any real “conservative” having anything but contempt for FDR. If I were to hear somebody claiming to be conservative do so, I would suggest that they are either unaware of history, or, more likely, are not conservative at all. A so-called conservative with a fondness for FDR is probably a “neoconservative” with a love for big government. Aside from that, only a person buying the myth that FDR either stopped the Great Depression or won WWII could praise him.
PS: Troy, you need to check your facts. The unemployment rate never got within twice the 8% you quote until at least 1946 when WWII intervened and was in the high teens to mid 20′s most of that time, well AFTER the so-called New Deal. I doubt if it was that low during the War either.
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