Presedential
The ANSWER shifted the American economy left by making things fairer for workers but also businessmen. It also protected people through acts and laws being introduced. The ANSWER was liked by people on both sides because it supported the rights of individuals and protected them but gave the working class as a group better conditions, however, what made it more left-leaning than right was the fact that it led to more government intervention.
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THE SQUARE DEAL
One of the several reforms introduced in Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency was giving the middle-class of America the “Square Deal.” The first time the phrase was used was in the 1870s by the press, like in the New York Times. In 1890 the term started appearing in headlines and Roosevelt first used the phrase in 1899. Roosevelt was quoted saying he “gave each man a square deal on his own account” by the New York Times. One of Roosevelt’s first public use of the phrase was in his 1903 in a speech he gave in Illinois, the phrase was soon tethered to his name because he popularized it. The phrase was created as a response to the terrible working conditions in the post-industrial revolution enhanced by classical liberalism. The Square Deal’s main purpose was to regulate manufacturing and trade and to ensure that controls and oversights to achieve fairness and equity in businesses. In addition, businesses were also were going to be protected by unfair unions. Another part of the square deal was the protection of women and children in the workplace which led to the Chartering of the National Child Labor Committee in 1907. The Square Deal was on one of the most well-liked policies introduced in politics because both the Liberals and Conservatives like it and it led to Roosevelt winning by a landslide in 1904 against Alton Parker.
The ANSWER was an ideological shift far left in Russia because of the massive amounts of governments it entailed for the next half-century. It shifted the Russian economy left by giving all control of the economy to the government, and it was based on the principles of Marxism. The ANSWER is as far from a shift to the left as any other shift within known human history.
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THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOVIET UNION
Before the Soviet Union became a thing, the Czar had absolute power and worked to industrialize Russia. Some events that occurred that led to Russia losing power and therefore the Czar’s control of the country were the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905 and the Bloody Sunday leading to the revolution in 1905. The Russo-Japanese War was a terrible defeat in Russia, it left the Russian fleet destroyed due to Russia’s underestimation of the Japanese fighting power. Bloody Sunday refers to a shooting of unarmed citizens by soldiers which led to the 1905 revolution. Bloody Sunday started as a peaceful protest by workers in St. Petersburg due to an economic downturn, not helped by the war with Japan and poor working conditions. Thousands marched to the Winter Palace to plead for reform to Tsar Nicholas II who was not present, the panicked soldiers instead gunned down the protestors. Due to ongoing losses to the Japanese, the Tsar Regime was weakening in powering which led to the Russian citizens revolting rather than cowering at the fact that a group of protestors was gunned down. The revolution led to Nicholas II to form a national assembly, however, it didn’t do much to help the majority of Russia. The next big thing that happened to Russia was World War 1. WW1 was not good for Russia, there were massive amounts of lives lost, food shortages, and lack of equipment and workers. With Nicholas II being the Commander-In-Chief, the battles lost were blamed on him which upset the Russian population further. In 1917, there were two major revolutions one in February / March, & on March 2nd, Nicholas II renounced his thrown and was soon after killed. After which the provisional government took control of Russia for the time being, who also shared power with a more radical group. The second revolution occurred in October / November, during that time period the provisional government lost power and the radical Marxists took power. This is when Vladimir Lenin came to power representing the Bolshevik Party and promised to draw Russian forces from the war, the land would be redistributed amongst the Russian people and food would also be distributed equally.
The ANSWER was a shift to the right for the American economy mainly because of the increase of consumerist culture that occurred during the time period. The prohibition of alcohol that occurred at the beginning of the decade was momentarily a shift left because that was incurred by the government, however, people found ways around it which largely made them more individualistic. The ANSWER had so little government intervention that it was immediately followed by the Great depression.
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THE ROARING 20s
Cars, Women’s Suffrage, Prohibition on alcohol & therefore the black market were all introduced in the 1920s and they all played a big role in the change of lifestyle that occurred in that decade. The Ford Model T was the most popular car at the time for the average American family and by 1927 it reached its 15 millionth model sold. Women’s suffrage made the idea that women deserve the right to vote more popular. The 20’s also brought a shift in style in women's clothing and the generation that wore such clothes were called flappers. The prohibition of alcohol introduced in January of 1920 was meant to stop or at least reduce violence and crime however it backfired. This period of time was called the prohibition era and it was riddled with corruption and led to a rise in illegal activities because those who enjoyed alcohol had no choice but to resort to illegal methods of attaining it like through speakeasies. In addition, the closing of alcohol-related business led people without jobs to seek jobs that were involved in illegally transporting alcohol in order to make some ‘quick money’. The film industry also boomed in the 1920s especially in America which enhanced the culture in the country. There was an ‘American Dream’ that was now sought after by mass amounts of people. Arguably one of the most important parts of the 1920s was the new way people viewed the stock market and the implications the crash had on the rest of the world. Consumer culture was now based on credit which was popularized the news and other forms of more recently popularized media such as film and radio and it pushed the average American to go into in the process of seeking what they could not afford. The American economy did eventually crash in 1929 which caused a ripple effect in the entire world economy.
On paper, THE ANSWER was not meant to be a shift left or right, but to just makeups and downs in the economy less dramatic. This would happen by bouncing the American economy from left to right depending on the economy. With that being said, THE ANSWER was only implemented in the cases where they needed to recover the economy, so when they were left-leaning similar to the New Deal. THE ANSWER was meant to save Capitalism so it was a shift left without becoming communist.
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KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS
John Meynard Keynes suggested that in times in which consumer spending fell, it was the government’s responsibility to make up for it by going into deficit spending. He believed that the average person could not prepare for an economic downturn and therefore it hit the middle and lower classes the hardest when such things happened. Keynesian economics was meant to flatten out the economic growth rather than have it be sporadic. The government could regulate the economy was through monetary and fiscal spending. Monetary spending was the act of printing money and increasing interest rates whereas fiscal spending was the amount the government spent on the economy. The general idea was that when the economy was depressed, the government should lower taxes and interest rates, and that government programs should put money into people’s pockets and the new money would help grow the economy. However, when the economy inflated, the government would then raise taxes, interest rates and cut spending in order to pay back the deficit it went into. The problem with Keynesian economics is that in reality, it would put the government into great amounts of debt that would be difficult to pay back because in a democratic society nobody would vote for a government that increased taxes and cut spending.
THE ANSWER was an economic shift left because the deal involved the government intervening with the economy through fiscal policies. It represented a fundamental shift LEFT away from the Classical Liberal ideas of deregulated economy and Laissez-Faire. The ANSWER shifted more towards economic equality and stability, collective responsibility and therefore government intervention in private sectors of the economy.
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ROOSEVELT'S NEW DEAL
Franklin Theodore Roosevelt was elected President after Henry Hoover and he promised that the government would fix the Great Depression. In the first 100 days of his presidency, FDR along with congress created 13 laws that all helped with the depression. The phrase “New Deal” came from FDR’s campaign and he suggested it was the government’s responsibility to fix the economy. The new deal was a set of government programs meant to fix the depression and prevent any of them in the future, it could also be seen as being meant to save Capitalism. There were 3 parts to the New Deal, Relief, Recovery and Reform. The relief sought to give money to the unemployed and protect farmers from foreclosing again. The government provided relief by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps which was a program for men aged 18-25 and it employed around 3 million men. Recovery meant to fix the economy in the short term by increasing spending greatly. A way of helping recover was the creation of the National Recovery Administration which was meant to stimulate industry by setting fair wages and hours for workers along with a minimum for prices for products to halt deflation. However, the NRA failed to create fair competition, stimulate industry or end the depression. Reform was meant to regulate the economy by regulating banks in ways like not letting them take parts in stocks anymore, conserve lands, and in general, the government was responsible for protecting consumers/investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission was made to regulate the stock market to help prevent crashes. Another form of reformation was the Social Security Act which helped aid dependent children, establish unemployment insurance and pensions and the Wagner Act which protected and supported Labour Unions. The most prevalent criticism of the New Deal was the fact that it was outright socialism, unconstitutional and highly increased FDR’s power too close to Dictatorship and it also raised the national debt greatly. The good things the New Deal did was established the fact that the government is responsible for health, welfare, security, protection, and education. It also embraced the ideas of social security, public health, and housing which are all prevalent today.
THE ANSWER was a shift left, and the reason is in the name, they were plans introduced and enforced by the Russian government. Both extremes of the political spectrum have Tyranny, and this was one of those cases, the Russian economy had veered so far left, all power was taken away from the people. This shifted the alter leftist Russian economy more left from control by the Red Party to Control by mostly one man, Joseph Stalin.
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STALIN'S 5 YEAR PLAN
Joseph Stalin took power after a 4-year struggle mainly against the political opponent within his party Leon Trotsky that arose after Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924 with the power he had been gaining as the Secretariat of the Communist Party. Once Stalin took power he sought to address the glaring issues with Russia. The west was far ahead of Russia, and Russia was also facing major famine problems, radical changes were needed. He decided to enforce a “5 Year Plan” that focused on industrialization through the collectivization of agriculture, rapid industrialization, and control by the government’s economic planning committee. Economic planning was materialized through Gosplan & Gosnab. Gosplan was the agency responsible for central economic planning and Gosnab decided how said goods would be distributed. One of the ways Stalin convinced his country to follow him was by creating a ‘personality cult’ in order to be a national hero as to not be overthrown. The first one was from 1929 to 1933 and had a major focus on heavy industry and finished one year ahead of time. Each 5 Year Plan dealt with capital goods, consumer goods, agriculture, transportation, communication, health, education, and welfare. The emphasis on which section was prioritized varied from plan to plan but they were generally emphasis on electricity, capital good and agriculture. In addition, each plan assigned a minimum target but also ideal targets, some like the first one was completed early whereas others were failed and abandoned. In the beginning, there was peasant resistance by the Kulak class which was swiftly crushed. This led to collective farms, that were supposed to be formed from farms uniting. and state farms, that were often less productive. The cost of industrialization didn’t stop at the farmers, laborers nationwide were overworked, peasants were forced off the land, threats were used to encourage the meeting of quotas, and lastly, millions were either killed resisting or sent to the Gulags. Also, Stalin deliberately starved 7-10 million Ukrainians which he blamed for Russia's problems, however in the process, Stalin did make the USSR into a world superpower. Stalin died at age 74 after suffering a stroke the 5 Year Plan continued. In total there were thirteen 5 Year Plans up till 1991, in which the last one was incomplete due to the Soviet Union collapsing.
The ANSWER and the stock market crash occurred due to an economic shift to the right that created a bubble in the American economy. When the aforementioned bubble popped the entire world felt the effects. US political leaders tried to do what was best for their country making them more individualistic and therefore lean right. The ANSWER caused people to think of taking out loans and using credit differently and made people more cautious with it for a while.
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THE GREAT DEPRESSION
It’s hard to say when the Great Depression started but what’s certain is that economic downturn was something that hit the farmers of America around a decade before it hit the rest of the country and eventually the world. America in large part did not participate in WW1 but it did profit from it by selling its food grown locally to the Allies. For the food to be grown at such large amounts many farmers had to buy expensive equipment which led to them going into debt. Once the war had ended in 1918, a combo of overproduction and low prices led to many farms being foreclosed. Another industry that saw a slowdown, was the car industry that stagnated in 1925. During the 1920s, and especially in the late 1920’s it was quoted that “by 1929, bankers were … loaning more money for the stock market and real estate investments than for commercial ventures”. This meant that money was being taken out to be spent on things that did go directly into the economy in large scales. The Stock Market Crash happened was a four day crash on October 24th which caused an equivalent of $369 billion which was more than the cost of WW1. This led to the loss of confidence in the stock market which arguably caused a snowball effect. Most of America’s banks relied on their own resources, and when people rushed to take money out of them if banks didn’t have all of the money they didn’t have enough reserved money. It started in Louisville but then spread to the surrounding states. As a response banks themselves called in loans and sold assets which led to credit freezing up. This led to deflation, which led to jobs being lost and everything costing less and no money being able to be loaned out. Because there were many large debts tied to America from WW1, when American credit froze, the economies of Germany, France, and Great Britain also plummeted. With people globally not being able to have the spending power they once did, world trade also stopped. Also, America responded by raising tariffs higher than ever which made things even worse and decreasing jobs internally further. In 1931, Britain stopped used gold as the standard currency, America still did which led to financial markets freezing up further.
Meanwhile in Canada, when the stock market crashed, Mckenzie King, the PM at the time chose to ignore the problem thinking that it would solve itself and ended up being voted out of power the following election. The PM after King was Richard Bennett who created work camps that were isolated and had bad wages and terrible living conditions. The response from the workers was forming the Relief Camp Workers Unit to demand better conditions. This led to the On-to-Ottawa Trek, in which over 1600 men jumped the trains to protest to the Prime Minister. Bennett ordered the trains to stop in Regina and invited the leaders of the trek to Ottawa, but after hours of talks, the men returned from Ottawa unhappy. Bennett then ordered the arrest of the men which led to a riot break out causing the death of one policeman and the injury of several citizens. Bennett later gave millions of dollars towards citizens in the form of raising the minimum wage and unemployment insurance which in summary was his own version of the New Deal. He was criticized for not being genuine and rather just trying to win the next election, and ended up losing the election to King. King again had very little success and the only reason Canada got out of the depression was because of WW2.
THE ANSWER did not mark a big shift in ideological principles within the US because they were based on Keynesian economics that had already been implemented. Western countries were all mixed economy because they all wanted to plan the economy but not to the extent of Laissez-Faire capitalism.
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POST-WW2 ECONOMIC POLICIES
After World War 2, during the Bretton Woods Agreement, John Meynard Keynes was an honored guest and the Gold Standard was set. Western countries believed planning the economy was what won them the war, and it would maintain peace. Berlin was divided up by 4 countries, France, England, the US, and USSR, and it represented the struggle between planned and free markets. The US and Britain decided to plan the economy but still keep the mark capitalistic, just not to the extent of Laissez-Faire Capitalism.
THE ANSWER was an ideological shift that moved the American economy more left than it already was. It was built on the ideas of economic equality by adding to them through new acts developed to make America more equal. It led to more government intervention that made life fairer, and some aspects of THE ANSWER ARE a part of the US and Canadian economies to this day such as public school.
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LYNDON B JOHNSON'S "GREAT SOCIETY"
After John Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson was elected, he introduced a set of domestic programs called ‘The Great Society’. The aim of the programs set to end poverty, preserve the environment, reduce crime and create equality in America. It also attempted to ensure consumer safety and fairer immigration policies compared to the very strict ones at the time. In order to break the cycle of poverty, education was provided to men and therefore skilled workers for the workforce. The Job Corps provided jobs for 100 000 men and provided work training programs for another 200 000 men and women. Medicare and Medicaid became law, Medicare-covered hospital care and elderly that qualified, Medicaid covered healthcare costs. The initiative to give a heard and provide reform for education was made possible through 8-week summer camps and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act guaranteed federal funding for schools whose majority population was below the poverty line. The Housing and Urban Development Act in 1965 helped provide homes for the mass amounts of people that moved to the suburbs after WW2. The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act in 1965 allowed funding for museums, libraries, public broadcasting, and other cultural organizations. There was also the Water Quality Act, Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control ACt there was legislation also passed to protect wildlife and rivers to create parks and pathways. Unfortunately, Lyndon Baines Johnson was also the president that escalated US involvement in Vietnam by increasing the number of troops in Vietnam from 16000 to 50000 and effectively declaring war. Johnson was heavily criticized for this decision and ended up decided not to run for reelection and is now more commonly known for starting the Vietnam war than introducing ‘The Great Society’.
THE ANSWER was an ideological shift right due to the new freedom that was allowed by Gorbachev. Gorbachev decided to control the economy less than his predecessors which caused a big shift in all of Russia. In addition, because Communism fell, so did the wall Separating Berlin which represented an acceptance of Western ideologies. The ideological shift in Russia was one that allowed for a free market and working together with western companies.
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THE FALL OF COMMUNISM AND INCREASING ECONOMIC FREEDOMS THROUGH GORBACHEV
After Stalin’s Death in 1953, there was a series of reforms brought about the end of the cult personality around him, gulag labor camps and the political system set in place at the time. After Stalin’s death, he was succeeded by other communist party leaders. Over the next 30 years, the world was split between Communism and Capitalism, however, in the 1970s there was a reduction in tensions between superpowers when Nixon went to China. Reagan became president in 1980 and took a strong stance against communism as a part of Reaganomics. He also began a program called the strategic defense initiative to protect America from enemy missiles, it was known as Star Wars but never put into effect however it did make things tense between the US and Soviets. Mikhail Gorbachev was the first leader in the soviet union that embraced the values of liberalism and greater freedom knows as Glasnost to help the economy in 1985. He made the Soviet Union’s political and economic system freer. The economy moved to a market economy, implemented private ownership of businesses and multi-party elections. This new implementation was known as Perestroika. Other parts of Gorbachev’s reforms was the stopping of the production of unwanted goods, joint ventures with Western companies being encouraged. In addition, large state enterprises became self-financing and small private enterprises were encouraged. An example of western companies being encouraged was when the first-ever Mcdonald’s opened on Jan 31, 1990, there were a total of 30 000 people that lined up on the first day. In summary, what brought about the end of Communism in Russia was that it couldn’t afford to spend on Military like the West because the Communist economy couldn’t prove the same quality of life or wealth as a free market. Communist governments are only able to maintain power through isolationism or modernization. In 1989, Poland held a free election and elected a non-communist government for the first time. The berlin wall also fell in 1989, and by the end of 1989 Communist in East Germany ended. Many people worldwide were afraid of Germany uniting however West Germany chancellor’s assured that what happened in WW2 would never happen again and that the country was committed to democracy and human rights. Germany officially reunited on October 3, 1990. In 1991, Boris Yeltsin was voted for heavily over Gorbachev and became the next leader of Russia because the USSR was dissolved that year. The direct consequences of leaving communism an increase of homeless, the crime rate, and the drop in stocks and the GDP by 50%. A combination of unemployment and privatization led to inflation but also a drop of social programs also occurred at the same due to communism being dropped & and many large industries went to oligarchs rather than the normal citizens.
THE ANSWER represented an ideological shift left, based on economic principles implemented in Keynesian economics. Stagflation was at first dealt with principles of collectivism, and government intervention by Nixon. Because Nixon abandoned the gold standard, the American dollar kept losing value instead of being maintained, so he tried to fix his mistake by shifting the economy left through control.
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THE 1970'S - STAGFLATION
In 1971 the US moved away from the Gold Standard which let the market determine the value of money in the country which lead to a period of inflation. In 1973 the Arab Israeli War occurred and the western countries chose to support Israel’s side which would prove to be an economic mistake. OPEC, an organization on the Arabic side decided to impose a 5-month embargo on the US and cut production of Oil. This leads to oil prices to quadruple which led to rationing. The problem was that goods became more expensive and the economy slowed down at the same time which led to welfare states becoming too large and a decrease in revenue from taxes. This phenomenon is called Stagflation because it describes the situation when the inflation rate is high at the time in which economic growth slows down, therefore, keeping unemployment rates high. The situation had never happened before. The president at the time, Richard Nixon tried to spend his way out of stagflation using the principles of stagflation even though he was a conservative. His solution was implementing wage and price controls which made things worse by creating shortages and did not stop prices from increasing.
THE ANSWER was a sort of balancing act meant to caution the American and Canadian economy away from having too little government intervention. It shifted the modern ideology that the economy should be almost entirely unregulated to more government control. This economic crisis led to Keynesian economics being implemented.
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THE ECONOMIC CRISIS OF 2008
The economic crisis happened in the 21st century but it can be traced back to the deregulation policies that happened in the 1970s/1980s. The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, that was set in place in 1980, changed banking by making it also almost entirely deregulated. This deregulation stuck through the multiple elections that happened during that time and in 2008 the minimum down payment got lowered to only 1%. Around the mid-2000’s investors started looking into the housing market in order to make money so they started buying houses bonds. The people lending money to house buyers were selling all of the mortgages they were getting so they started not caring wether the were giving mortgages to people with stable sources of income. Loans started being given to individuals with bad credit scores and low income who had no way of paying their mortgages and eventually everyone started buying homes. Eventually houses started being foreclosed and the supply for houses far outweighed the demand for them which meant house prices started to fall. People realised the terrible situation they were in and insurance investors weren’t able to pay back the people that had invested in them, leading them along with banks and lenders, to go bankrupt. Soon enough companies relying on roles that weren’t related to the housing industry started losing access to loans and therefore vital financing. All of these things lead to millions of jobs being lost and a return of regulation to the housing industry.
THE ANSWER represented an ideological shift in America and the UK to the right. Both leaders of the free world chose to make the economy less controlled by the government. They brought their economies back to forms of Classical Liberalism, and even Laissez-Faire Capitalism. It shifted the ideology towards the economy away from how left it was for the past couple of decades.
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NEOCONSERVATISM - (THATERCHISM AND REAGONOMICS)
NeoConservatism is an ideology that emerged in the US during the mid-50s as a reaction against modern liberal principles. Some aspects of it favored a return to classical liberalism to a certain extent, it was against some modern liberal principles like Keynesian policies and any government control of the economy and welfare state. Certain parts of Neo-Con represent traditional family values or foreign policy of military supremacy and supported equality like equality of opportunity and individualism. President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were regarded as the flagbearer of the Neocon movement, they were similar in policies in that they both aimed to deal with stagflation and unemployment through privatizing their economies to establish a full return to Laissez-Faire capitalism. In the US, Reagan’s version of NeoCon involved an increase in the defense budget in order to promote democracy and capitalism and strengthen American ties to other democratic allies and challenge that opposed American values. Neo-Cons agreed on patriotism being encouraged to the point in which large countries’ interests should extend beyond its borders in order to spread capitalism but that world government was not a good idea. Thatcher decided to privatize state-owned industries such as Coal and Electrical Utilities and decrease taxes which lead to cuts in Healthcare, Education and Social Security. She also challenged Labour Unions and broke strikes because she thought they were bad for the economy and stifled economic growth.
THE ANSWER followed principles of Keynesian economics in order to save their economies. This meant more government intervention, through fiscal and monetary policies that give money to the citizens, and it moved a little bit away from Laissez-Faire capitalism. Both countries shifted ideologies a small amount left.
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CANADA'S ECONOMIC ACTION PLAN OF 2008 AND THE OBAMA STIMULUS PACKAGE
Canada’s Economic Action Plan worked to create and protect Canadian jobs and incomes by delivering $61 Billion in the economy. The plan reduced taxes permanently helped the unemployed by enhancing Employment Insurance benefits and training programs. IT also worked to create jobs by building infrastructure, improving infrastructure at colleges and universities and supporting research and technology. It supported industries and communities most affected by the economic downturn and improved access to the affordability of financing for Canadian households and businesses. There was $20 billion in tax relief over 2009-09 and the next five years, it also provided tax relief to small businesses. The plan created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and gave an extra five weeks of benefits to the unemployed and provided training for tens of thousands of Canadians, Canada essentially used Keynesian policies to get out of the recession. The Obama Stimulus package was outlined in his 2008 campaign and is referred to as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was approved by Congress in February 2009. The ARRA ended the 2008 recession by increasing consumer spending by adding $787 billion in budget deficits by 2019. The ARRA spent in 3 categories, it cut taxes by a total of $288 billion, spent $224 billion in unemployment benefits and health care. It also allocated $275 billion in grants, loans, and federal contracts, therefore, helping created jobs that were lost from the lack of loans being given to industries that relied on them. The ARRA caused the economy to grow and created 2 million to around 11 million jobs, most of which were made in 2011.