The Late Great U.S.S.A.

“Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth… I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.”
F. Roosevelt-1932
The New Deal, forged at a time of 25% unemployment, massive deflation, and a sense of hopelessness, begat entities such as the TVA, the WPA, Social Security, strengthened labored unions, and created the first farm subsidies as a means of controlling prices. The Gold Standard was eliminated, and the U.S.A. was on the way to morphing into the U.S.S.A., aka, The United Socialist States of America.
It took a World War to rescue us from the grip of the Great Depression, as many historians still can’t agree if any of Roosevelt’s programs did much of anything to jumpstart a very sick economy. There are those who believe his remedies slowed recovery, and irrevocably damaged a free market system, that prior to the New Deal, were not required to “lobby” the Feds for favors. Prices were set by the bureaucracy, and as a result, competition all but disappeared.
When LBJ and his Congress created the New New Deal, otherwise known as “The Great Society”, the Feds outdid themselves. Now they were giving away tax dollars for nothing in return; no dams, power plants, crops, nothing. This act, in reality, was the “Great Poverty Machine”, generating more poverty and white flight from urban areas than any economic downturn could ever do. The Great Society had the power to manifest generational poverty, again and again.
Currently we have the New New New Deal, or the “Great Wall Street Bailout”. It is too soon to tell whether or not this works or not. I would say not. Not only are we not building infrastructure, or helping the poor “get on their feet” though giveaways, but are guaranteeing millions of dollars for CEO’s and their henchman (and henchwomen, to be PC). President Obama is PROMISING deficits in the trillion dollar range for each fiscal year in the “foreseeable future”, not counting economic stimulus programs. With corporations, state governments, and all of their brothers waiting in line for federal money, the U.S.S.A. is really and truly becoming a reality. As we learned during our own Civil War, secession is not an option. That’s too bad.