Obviously, a lot has changed in America since 1933 when
President Franklin Roosevelt took over during the third year of the
Great Depression.
The economy is bigger and more complicated. There are probably twice as many Americans living here now. And as bad as things are now, they still pale compared to the 1930s.
But what strikes me as problematic about both the Bush and Obama attempts to reinvigorate the economy is the great transfer of federal treasury to not people but to corporations.
For my parents in their 70s and 80s, the Depression isn't history, it was their lives. They knew what it was like to have little. They knew what it was like to go hungry. They saw their parents struggle with farming and employment.
But what was different in the 1930s was through programs like FDR's
WPA, money went to people, not corporations. The unemployed from many walks of life got jobs. Most notably, many people were put to work building roads, bridges, parks, and civic facilities. In
Yankton and
Sioux Falls, we got City Halls out of the deals. In Hampton, NE, my dad's hometown, they got a civic auditorium. You'll still see sidewalks with the WPA stamp in older parts of Yankton, my hometown.
The money went to employ people to do useful things. My grandfather, Henry H. Epp, fed his family because of WPA programs in his corner of
Nebraska.
Today, what tangible thing can we say the billions and billions of dollars have accomplished? Given banks a better bottom line because of
TARP money? And those same banks are still giving out huge bonuses to the same people who got us into this mess. Contractors who were going to do government projects are now simply assured they'll get paid from Stimulus money.
Why direct money to struggling homeowners? Why not a new investment in infrastructure--and not just big Interstate projects? Our local parks need work. There are ball fields and soccer fields and playgrounds in need of repair, refurbishment, and so forth. How about upgrading all those WPA projects from the 1930s as a start?
The Stimulus has been about corporations, not people. The WPA was about people, no corporations. My Man Crush President Obama is many good things. But he could stand to have a lot more FDR in him if he wants to both get us out of this slump and serve another term.
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