The Great Depression is the classic example of what happens to a free market economy when government genuises think they can make better decisions than millions of free consumers. What started out as a normal market correction was followed by government interferance in the form of price fixing, output caps, increased taxes, rampant government spending, huge protective tariffs, and government meddling in areas that should have been left to free enterprise (power and lighting, among others), which effectively prolonged a recession, spawned a depression, then created an even bigger "depressions within a depression."
Franklin Delanore Roosevelt (FDR) (Democrat) became famous for his "fireside chats." His smooth voice and fatherly reassurrances calmed a nation on the front end while he yanked and pulled on every string available to government on the back end. The President that preceded him, Hebert Hoover (Republican), was not much better. Between their two administrations, the U.S. government began to meddle in American affairs more so than at any other time since the Civil War.
At first, the government experimented with different manipulations, looking for the right combination to "fix" things, all the while being sure to appear as if they were "doing" things on behalf of Americans. Then, they began prosecuting all kinds of scapegoats to take the American people's minds off the fact that all the changes weren't working and to place the blame elsewhere. This persecution was against former Treasury secretaries in the previous administrations, small business owners who were accused of violating some brand new, super-complicated tax rule, large industries that were operating exactly how they always had but somehow were suddenly being called illegal, and stock traders and investors. The sensational news stories about the government cracking down on the people that had "caused all of this" kept their minds distracted from the real culprits. It was an era in American history that mirrored Caesar's "bread and circuses" program in which he pacified and distracted the mobs in Rome with free grain and gladitorial games.
Let me be as clear as I can be: more government is not the answer. It never has been, and never will be.
It has been tried.
It has failed.
Every time.
Why must we repeat it again?
Why must we dive into the same terrible spiral of suffering and blame and flagging economics and loss of freedoms and encroaching bureaucracies, only to discover that they still don't work?
FDR called his escapade of government manipulation the "New Deal." It is safe to say that much of the New Deal was an extremely Raw Deal. Now we are entering into an era where people seem to count more and more on the government for "answers" and "fixes" to problems that it created in the first place! Only what do you call it after the New Deal is found not to work? Do you call it an Even Newer Deal? Or the This-Time-It-Will-Be-Better New Deal?
Let's keep it simple folks: More government = Wrong Answer!
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