GED 132 - US Govt-unit 1 question #3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

GED 132 - US Govt-unit 1 question #3 - Essay Example The greatest contribution of this era in changing the role of the government vis-Ã  -vis the people of America was the New Deal. This was introduced by the then president of the United States of America, Franklin Roosevelt. The New Deal led to a lot of new legislations that helped get the people back on their feet after the stock market crash of 1929 that had spiraled into the Great Depression. This included, during the first hundred days of the year 1933, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, a program that was supposed to enable unemployed people to receive a certain amount of money that would help them through the lean period that the Great Depression gave rise to. The period following this was one of great productivity as the government set people to work on many projects of infrastructure improvement that led to the creation of more jobs in a chain reaction that further boosted the process of recovery (Government by the People). The providing of jobs to people who were u nemployed also helped dispel the myth that poverty was an essential result of idleness and laziness. As a result of the New Deal, poverty came to be recognized as an effect of governmental policies and greater macroeconomic pressures. Another important contribution of the Great Depression was the creation of a social security net that would cover sections of the populations that had been marginalized and had been undergoing great hardships during the Great Depression. This covered the unemployed, the aging and the disabled. Through the years, this program has been expanded to include the survivors of the beneficiaries who were dependants but has essentially catered to the needs of the helpless (Government by the People). The era following the Great Depression helped create a framework whereby the people who occupied the margins of the society owing to their cultural and economic deprivations had opportunities to