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cover of Kareem FDR Speech
Kareem FDR Speech

Kareem FDR Speech

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FDR Speech on the Great Depression

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The speaker, FDR, addresses the American people during a time of economic crisis. He acknowledges the factors contributing to the suffering of American families, such as the credit economy and the struggles of the agricultural sector. He emphasizes the overproduction and low prices of agricultural products, resulting in farmers going into severe debt and banks foreclosing on them. Natural disasters like dust storms exacerbate the situation. FDR urges farmers to stop overproducing and offers financial assistance. He also highlights overproduction in other sectors like cars and housing construction, leading to unemployment. FDR criticizes excessive loans for stock market investments and proposes regulations to stabilize banks and protect citizens' money. He introduces the New Deal program, which includes measures like the National Labor Relations Act, public works projects, the Social Security Act, and financial regulations. FDR contrasts his approach with Hoover's, advocating for govern Ladies and gentlemen, good citizens of the United States of America, good evening. I have spent much time with my cabinet coming up with plans on how to reach all American families who are suffering from the misfortunate turn of events. My heart goes out to each and every one of you. We have arrived at this difficult time for several big reasons. Our credit economy is a big factor. When we keep buying so much on credit and installment buying but don't have the ability to pay us, that will hurt us. Our agricultural sector continues to suffer too. We are no longer in war, and so we do not need all these products, but because our farmers mass produced so much and bought fancy machines to do this with, they are now in deep financial problems with huge debts. This combination of overproductive and low prices has forced so many of our good farmers to go into severe debt, and banks have been foreclosed upon many farmers. Moreover, our farmers are suffering incredibly due to the problems of the economy, but also due to natural disasters such as our dust storms. Why did this happen, you ask? Farmers are overproducing to make up for the losses they are experiencing, but sadly no one is buying because the banks have no money, therefore people are starving, and yet there is so much food rotting away in the fields. Now we have these massive storms carrying loads of dust because of the overworked lands. Cities such as Chicago are experiencing storms and red snow. Children and teachers are not able to go to schools as many can't make it home from school because they can't see more than 2-3 feet in front of you. Teachers are having to keep children at school so they don't get lost. Never has this country seen this kind of storms. To this I plead to our farmers, stop producing so much, we will pay you not to grow anymore. In other areas in our economy, we are continuing to overproduce things such as cars, and there is no longer the demand for these, and so factories which were once booming following the Ford factory model are now shutting down, and people are finding themselves out of work. We are also seeing this in the housing construction business. So many of our houses stand unfinished and abandoned, and yet there are so many people out here working and homeless. This is a tragedy, additionally to way too many people who are investing in the stock market. In fact, banks are giving away too many loans for investing in the stock market, and real estate investments, and not giving loans for the things that really matter such as the new commercial investments. People are buying into the stock market using loans, also known as buying on margin. Many good citizens, this is not the answer. Please stop this, because if the market continues to crash, everyone will suffer. I am saddened to see so many people losing all their money because these small banks are not able to sustain their money, especially if everyone starts to pull out their money. This makes these small banks go belly up and they cannot recover. This creates a bad chain reaction, because when these banks die, then local businesses die, which means that everyone loses because there are no more good jobs. This is what we are dealing with daily. Every day another business dies. Every day another family falls. This is known in economic terms as deflation. Now how to fix this problem you ask? We in Washington have created a plan, and I would like to share it with you folks. If we work together, perhaps we can stop the bleeding and suffering for our country. Here is my proposal to you. We have created an emergency banking act to stabilize the banks and economy. We hope that once businesses start working again, this will provide relief to jobless Americans. The New Deal program will provide a lot of financial safety measures for Americans. Some of these programs or acts we will start are the National Labor Relations Act, which will create unions for our people, which will also guarantee a minimum wage system. Our Public Works program will create construction projects, such as building bridges, roads, and buildings, and much more. We will start a program called the Social Security Act, which will create a pension system and help people with getting money, even if you have lost your jobs. Additionally, we will be adding more regulation arms to our government to help stabilize the U.S. These programs will protect people and their investment. I propose the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which separates investment banking from commercial banking. One of the banking is about loans and investment, and the other is about saving. We believe it is important to keep them separate. I also feel that we need to protect our citizens' money through the FDIC Act. These regulations will protect your bank accounts and provide insurance for all your money. All banks will be temporarily shut down and investigated. They will have insurance that they will not run out of your money. The Security and Exchange Commission will oversee the stock market and will be very strict in regulating what can and cannot be done. This will help prevent fraud. Lastly, there are programs that are being set in place to help with agricultural price supports where we will pay farmers not to produce so much. We will regulate the prices so food is affordable to all. I, FDR, am different than Hoover in the fact that I believe that American government should step in and take over during the times of crisis, while Hoover believes in the more hands-off approach and has turned to the private sector for help, but that is not regulated and not in the best way interest of you, the people. Hoover does not believe in having the federal government give money to the unemployed and has hiked international taxes for products coming to the U.S. This is now affecting the world and affecting the value of gold in our country. This is not the best way to help our economy. Dear citizen, please let us work together so we can get our beloved America back on her feet and strong again. Good night and God bless each one of you. Always at your service. FDR.

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