“The first is that the typical American is not going to revolt as long as he has a roof over his head, and food in his belly. This was the single reason that ‘Ol’ Frank’ Roosevelt succeeded where Herbert Hoover failed.”
I don’t understand this point. FDR did not put roofs in over the heads and food in the bellies of the general population any better than did Hoover. What worked for Frank, in my opinion, was the beginning of “identity politics,” and the creation of coalitions of voters who depended on a particular candidate to get them goodies. But perhaps that’s what you meant in the first place.
FDR created the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, whose purpose was to do something bizarre. Even in the Dust Bowl years, the rest of America’s farmers produced far too much food, at the same time people were starving. The FSRC was to relieve both of these problems.
This drove prices into the basement at a time when deflation was already bad. A bushel of wheat cost 50 cents, and farmers were burning corn for heat. It was said that agricultural surplus hurt farmers worse than the Dust Bowl.
One of the first actions of the FSRC was to slaughter and dispose of six million pigs. As the saying went at the time, “Then Ol’ Frank killed all the little pigs.” This was done to help the most farmers at once, because pig farming has long been far more decentralized than chicken or beef. Even today, pig farmers will tell you that they always walk the razor’s edge with pork prices. A few pennies in the wrong direction could wipe them out.
On the other side of the coin, the FSRC provided hundreds of tons of food to government and private relief agencies to feed the millions of hungry people.
dalereed: Say what you want about “cash payments to people” welfare, but when people are starving, they will vote for the devil himself if he promises them food.
Hoover was right that his economic program would have restored America faster, but even though he eventually realized that food had to be redistributed, he hesitated just long enough that the hungry public turned on him with fury that still exists. Giving starving people food is not welfare—it is national defense.
That is SUCH a prescient and insightful comment! I wish I had thought of it in those terms. Spot on, IMHO.