¶ … New Deal's Consequences
There are some truly poignant ways in which the New Deal profoundly changed American life. The vast majority of these changes had ramifications in political, social, and economic spheres of life. Perhaps even more importantly, many of these changes created by the New Deal were able to effect American life across these different spheres, creating cumulative effects that eventually resounded through all of three facets of life.
In terms of economics, it is notable that despite its intention to produce the opposite effect, the New Deal actually begat the trend towards economic conservatism and laissez fare economics that still typifies the country to this day. Ironically, the New Deal programs -- which were based on the simple notion that the government was responsible for generating spending and business to stimulate the economy during the Great Depression -- had the immediate impact of producing a heavily regulated economy. National programs in various walks of life including the arts, writing, farming, and others ensured that the government was involved in most areas of economic production during the depression. From that point on, numerous conservatives made dedicated efforts to reverse the government's influence on the economy. Once the U.S. economy stabilized during the Second World War, those interests (which combined the political and economic to inherently affect the social) ensured that the jobs...
economy. Although some of these events took place well after the New Deal, the sentiment towards conservative economics and a laissez fare government actually sprang from the surplus of government involvement in the economy during the New Deal.
From a social perspective, the New Deal helped to change the lot of America during one of its worst economic time periods. Government spending in various realms of society helped to establish precedents and principles in relation to them that are still in effect today. One of the lesser known, yet equally vital, means in which American society changed was in regards to its prison system. The government funded the construction of many new prisons during the New Deal as a way of stimulating the economy and employing various personages and companies to build them. This maneuver was one that would be widely replicated by posterity, as eventually the U.S. would be known for its prison industrial complex. Currently, prisons are privatized and are a lucrative form of business -- in some cases, in the private sector. However, this trend was one that actually started due to the New Deal and the systematic prison building that took place during this epoch.
What is extremely significant about this aspect of the New Deal is its ramifications for the economy. Building prisons…
