(Judd, 2009).”
“The Great Depression of the 1930s had a global impact, obliterating the idea that individuals controlled their own destiny. It became clear that the world contained many macro-systems that worked together to profoundly affect individual lives. The United States was plagued by huge decreases in manufacturing productivity and wages, on the one hand, and skyrocketing unemployment, on the other (Kirst-Ashman, 2007, pg. 180).”
In contrast to the economic opulence of the “Roaring Twenties,” life in 1930’s America was not a pretty picture for most of the population. Americans were desperately craving change from above as they could not do much from their own positions in society. The economy had crumbled. This macroeconomic disintegration was very apparent on the microeconomic level. However, those who had control and power in this country were oblivious to the millions of impoverished families.
In 1929, The Great Depression began with the stock market crash. It was not the cause of the Great Depression, but it was a red flag, a precipitating event which came from the uncontrolled crediting of 1920s banking (Judd, 2009). 1.6 million were unemployed which only worsened as the years went by with 8 million unemployed in 1931, 13 million (over 25%) unemployed in 1933 (Segal, 2007). Strikes, demonstrations and riots cropped up everywhere. Banks were on the brink of failure. America was filled with wandering transients. 25% of farms were foreclosed.
President Herbert Hoover felt these conditions were part of the natural ebb and flow of the business cycle. However, the increasing prevalence of poverty made it hard to hold the poor individual accountable (Wormer, 2006). The American Government had no choice but to confront these many conflicts. The basic fabric of American society had fallen apart. Americans were forced into a period of activism and reform (Judd, 2009). Societal suffering was finally extreme enough to bring about social upheaval.
The New Deal was a collection of social welfare policies declared by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the first year he became president of the United States. Roosevelt promised to “regularize production, provide federal public works and unemployment insurance, and getting the federal government to assume responsibility for relief. Much of what he accomplished was done in a dazzling 100 days (Wormer, 2006, pg. 100).” The first of the New Deal programs were funded by the federal government, but the funds were dispensed to the states, which in turn started and regulated the programs. These programs mostly provided public works jobs to the able-bodied unemployed. The mission’s intent was to attack the massive unemployment of American citizens. British economist John Maynard Keynes inspired Roosevelt to utilize deficit spending, and to give private sector jobs to the public which served as a ballast, creating stability from increasing unemployment (Judd, 2009).
The Social Security Act and Social Welfare of the 1930s
These New Deal programs did immediately provide jobs, which helped individual families, but it became apparent by 1935 that the devastated economy of the American Great Depression was in desperate need of direct help from the federal government. Roosevelt, with experience in running similar legislation in the state of New York with the Wicks Act (state disbursement of unemployment insurance) and help from his knowledgeable European consultant (John Maynard Keynes), instituted the Social Security Act. Francis Perkins, Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, was also an integral participant in development of the Social Security Act. She was the first female Cabinet member and an active participant in drafting New Deal legislation (Brownell, 1998). Together, they created one of the most beneficial and unique social welfare programs to ever grace American history.
The numerous social welfare programs instituted by Roosevelt over his four consecutive terms as president were varied:
1933 Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), under the regulation of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, FERA provided massive relief grants to all needy or unemployed persons and their dependents (Wormer, 2006). It created camps for displaced people, made loans available to college students, and acquired 4 million acres of land for the use of tenant farmers (Kirst-Ashman, 2007). $500,000 went to states to provide unemployment insurance, welfare, relief and food banks (Judd, 2009).
1933 Civilian Works Administration (CWA) directed funds to be invested in a variety of public works in order to create jobs. The byproduct was many new roads, parks, drain ditches and overall public good (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
1933 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was similar to the CWA in the way of revitalization. Participants were paid to renovate parks in western American states, taking part in reforestation, flood prevention and fire control. They first recruited males 18-25 years of age and sent them to work in western states (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
1935 Public Works Administration (PAW) was intended to invigorate slumped industries by contracting with independent businesses to erect public facilities, and subsequently, create jobs. The PAW contracted sizeable jobs like airports, dams, flood control projects, and military installations (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
1935 Works Progress Administration (WPA), renamed the Works Projects Administration in 1939, provided work for skilled, unemployed citizens. This program was known for giving jobs to artists, musicians, writers, scholars, and workers skilled in heavy construction (Kirst-Ashman, 2007). “[Works relief] . . . By once more enmeshing people in the work role, the cornerstone of social control in any society, it went far toward moderating civil disorder (Wormer, 2006, pg. 97).”
1935 The Social Security Act (SSA) was the most memorable of the New Deal measures. It alleviated the financial crisis of the poor through: Insurance for aging Americans; medical care and welfare aid to mothers and children; aid and rehabilitation for the handicapped; as well as a federal to state system of unemployment assistance. The Social Security Act offered a foundation for the new US social welfare structure. It was the first example of the American federal government directly providing for the needs of its citizens.
In this year of 1935, Roosevelt reformed the economy with safeguards to protect workers and enable them to obtain benefits involving regulation of price, wage, and of production. Businesses were forced to end child labor, allow unions and uphold specific employment conditions (Wormer, 2006). Roosevelt was now taking radical measures that worked. Formation of the Social Security Act and his other reforms acted as a pressure relief valve for the brutal economic conditions of the Great Depression. This was the first time the federal government became immediately involved in helping American citizens with social welfare aids. It has been said that Roosevelt saved capitalism with these actions (Judd, 2009).
The FERA and CWA were terminated when the Social Security Act was passed. The CCC, NYA, PWA, and WPA were finished with the beginning of World War II in 1939. A national backlash against New Deal reforms and union strikes, along with escalation of war in Europe and Asia, contributed to opposition to the labor movement of the 1940s (Wormer, 2006). These programs were effective for the time they were needed. They were actually designed to provide temporary jobs through the desperate period of the Great Depression. However, it was not these social welfare policies that ended the economic crisis. American involvement in World War II was the event that put an end to the Great Depression. Within one year of December 7th of 1941, with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, American participation in World War II drastically increased employment and stimulated business. It stabilized the economy of the 1940s (Judd, 2009).
The Community Mental Health Act and Social Welfare of the 1960s
In contrast to the World War II effort which united Americans and created an environment of peace and stability through the forties and fifties, The 1960s were a discordant time in America where people were driven apart. The American government was challenged in the way of civil rights, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War protests along with general social unrest. There were massive urban riots in poor black communities through the mid-1960s. The political and social turmoil of the 1960s created an atmosphere of rebellion which furthered changes in social welfare issues and human rights, especially for poor and vulnerable populations. These advancements are still reflected in our American government and society today (Wormer, 2006).
The 1960s was a period of economic prosperity for some Americans, but actually the gap between the affluent and the poor became progressively more apparent. Much of the 40 million people living in poverty were of ethnic minority groups (DiNitto, 2007). African-Americans in particular were no longer passive about the subverted racism which had followed them throughout history. After many of them fought in World War II, segregation and the discriminatory “Jim Crow Laws” were no longer accepted by African-Americans as a viable part of American society. Since the 1954 Brown vs. The Board of Education Topeka ruling of desegregation had overturned the concept of “separate but equal” from the 1848 case of Plessy vs. Ferguson (Judd, 2009), African-Americans of the 1960s were moving out of the south to northern cities which created numerous, poor, highly-populated, inner-city areas (Segal, 2007).
John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960. He was very interested in civil rights, mental health issues and cutting capital gains taxes in order to stimulate business. He created the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 which made mental health services available to low-income Americans. After John F. Kennedy’s Assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson became the American president responsible for pressing the Civil Rights Act through to its congressional approval in 1964. With his rally of American support to finish “ The New Frontier” reforms that Kennedy was implementing, Johnson declared a war on poverty which led to the vital development of numerous social welfare programs. The war on poverty and its ideals were encapsulated in the name given this era of progressive reform, “The Great Society (Wormer, 2006).” The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 underpinned Johnson’s war on poverty. The Office of Economic Opportunity introduced programs like: Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA); Upward Bound, a program to help poor, inner-city children enter college; Operation Head Start, which prepared lower-income children for school; Legal services; and the Job Corps (Wormer, 2006).
In contrast to the early 1960s, the Great Society was an era of huge optimism and idealism. Americans believed that they could use their institutions to get and do anything they chose to. They had put a man on the moon. Johnson’s vision for America’s future was that of a “city on the hill,” a utopian society where poverty did not exist.
Scholars argue about American successes from and since the Great Society era. However, Kennedy and Johnson did create a set of policies which created a national social welfare safety net, not unlike those created by Roosevelt in the New Deal era (Judd, 2009). Some of these were:
1963 Community Mental Health Centers Act which provided federal funds for mental health centers, training programs and outpatient treatment programs. This was an important part of the deinstitutionalization movement. The Community Mental Health Centers Act had its problems because treating people in the community became more difficult, professionals didn’t want to work with patients with chronic problems, and the communities would not offer the resources necessary to sustain community care. Many people ended up in jails or homeless and these problems are still showing up in society today (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
1964 Civil Rights Act was legislation that made segregation and discrimination against someone on the basis of race illegal in schools, public places and employment.
1964 Economic Opportunity Act provided counseling and job training to Americans. Local community programs were run from monies dispersed from the federal government to individual city mayors. It was deemed unsuccessful because it did not provide any job placement for participants (Judd, 2009). It also attributed disadvantaged people’s problems to personal deficiency (Trattner, 1999).
1964 Food Stamp Act was a program in which qualifying disadvantaged families receive coupons that could be used to buy food (Kirst-Ashman, 2007). This is still available to people today.
1965 Medicare and Medicaid (Titles 18 & 19) were added to the Social Security Act this year of 1965. They provide health insurance for the elderly and for the poor (Wormer, 2006). These are also available to people today.
1965 Older Americans Act (OAA) administrated the coordination and delivery of well-being services to older people (Judd, 2009).
1965 Administration on Aging (AOA) created by the OAA for those 60 years of age and over. Benefits included: Transportation and delivered hot meals (also provided at senior centers); preventative health care; recreation; home care; as well as information and resource referral (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
1965 Voting Rights Act eliminated barriers to African-Americans engaging in their right to vote.
1968 The Housing and Urban Development Act (HUD) made subsidized, low-income housing available to needy families (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
From 1968 through 1969 there were the formations of National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW), National Association of Puerto Rican Social Service (NAPRSSW), Association of American Indian Social Workers, and the Asian American Social Workers organization (Kirst-Ashman, 2007).
The Great Society and its evolution of social welfare programs were put to a halt with the beginning of the Vietnam War. Johnson needed to focus his attention on our military forces overseas. He used all his political chips toward further escalating the Vietnam War until his predecessor, Richard Nixon, winded it down and eventually ended our involvement (Judd, 2009).
These two eras of social welfare reform changed American society in drastic ways which were confrontational to the times they were formed. They were new federal policies which opposed the traditional ways set in place before and since America’s independence from England in 1776. They were much needed to quell the turbulence of America’s adolescence. Roosevelt, being the first to pilot federal involvement in private domestic needs, sought help from European history on what worked for them. A moral in social welfare policy being: Ask questions, look for help, and if what you are doing is not working, try doing it a different way.
DiNitto, D. M. (2007). Social Welfare, Politics and Public Policy (Sixth Edition), Pearson Education, Boston, MA
Judd, P. (2009). SWRK 6100: Social Welfare Policy (class notes and handouts), Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2007). Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare (Second Edition), Thomson Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA
Segal, E. A. (2007). Social Welfare Policy and Social Programs, Thomson Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA
Trattner, W. I. (1999). From Poor Law to Welfare State (Sixth Edition), The Free Press, New York, NY
Wormer, K. V. (2006). Introduction to Social Welfare and Social Work, Thomson Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA
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