During the "100-day New Deal", while solving the banking problem, Roosevelt tried his best to urge the parliament to pass the agricultural adjustment law and the national industrial revival law successively, becoming the right-hand man of the whole New Deal. Roosevelt asked capitalists to abide by the rules of "fair competition" and stipulate the scale, price and sales scope of each enterprise; The minimum wage and maximum working hours are set for workers (the original workers work 55 hours a week, and the salary is only 60 cents, and the adjusted standard is: workers work 40 hours a week, and the minimum wage per week is 12 US dollars), thus limiting monopoly and reducing and alleviating tense class contradictions. After receiving the reluctant support of large enterprises, Roosevelt then tried his best to win the support of small and medium-sized business owners. He said that it is very important for large enterprises to accept the industrial revival law. "The fruitful field still lies in small employers, and their contribution will be to provide new employment opportunities for 1 to 10 people." These small employers are actually an extremely important part of the backbone of the country, and the success or failure of our plan depends largely on them. "The development of small and medium-sized enterprises has played a positive role in social stability and economic recovery in the United States.
Another important content of the New Deal is relief work. 1933 in may, congress passed the federal emergency relief law, established the federal emergency relief agency, and quickly allocated various relief funds and materials to the States. The following year, the simple relief was changed to "work for relief", which provided the unemployed with opportunities to engage in public utilities and safeguarded their self-reliance and self-esteem. In the early days of Roosevelt's administration, more than170,000 unemployed people and their relatives in China depended on the help and charity of the state government, the municipal government and private charities to make a living. However, compared with such a huge army of unemployed people, this part of the financial resources is tantamount to a drop in the bucket. Only the federal government can solve this complex social problem. The first measure of Roosevelt's New Deal was to urge Congress to pass the plan of the private resource protection group. The plan specifically recruits/kloc-young people aged 0/8 to 25 who are physically strong and have high unemployment rate, and are engaged in tree planting and forest protection, flood control, soil and water conservation, road construction, opening forest fire prevention routes, and setting up forest watchtowers. The first batch recruited 250,000 people to work in Quanzhou 1500 camp. Before going to the United States to fight in the war, more than 2 million young people worked in this institution, and they opened up more than 7.4 million acres of state-owned forest areas and a large number of state-owned parks. On average, everyone works for 9 months, and most of the monthly salary is used as family support, thus expanding the relief area and corresponding purchasing power of the whole society. For those people in Qian Qian who absolutely depend on cities to support themselves, Roosevelt also urged Congress to pass the federal emergency relief law, set up federal relief agencies, rationally divide the use ratio between the federal government and the states, formulate preferential policies, and encourage local governments to directly help the poor and the unemployed. During the New Deal, there were various relief agencies in the United States, which could be divided into the Ministry of Public Works (the government allocated more than 4 billion US dollars) and the Ministry of Civil Engineering (the investment was nearly 65.438 billion US dollars). The latter built 65.438+0.8 million small-scale engineering projects nationwide, including school buildings, bridges, dikes and dikes. Later, several new relief organizations were established. Among them, the most famous ones are the project establishment organization set up by the National Congress with a grant of 5 billion dollars and the National Youth Administration for young people. They employ a total of 23 million people, accounting for more than half of the national labor force. By the eve of World War II, the federal government had spent $654.38+08 billion on various projects and a small amount of direct relief expenses. The US government had built nearly 6,543.8+0,000 airports, 6,543.8+0,200 sports fields and more than 800 school buildings and hospitals, which not only created employment opportunities for craftsmen, unskilled workers and the construction industry, but also provided various jobs for thousands of unemployed artists. The money goes through the pockets of workers, through different channels and consumption, and returns to the hands of capitalists, becoming the "detonating water" to stimulate private consumption and personal investment with government investment.
The second "New Deal" began with 1935. On the basis of the first stage, the achievements of the New Deal were consolidated in the form of legislation through social insurance bill, national labor relations bill, public utilities bill and other laws and regulations. Roosevelt believed that if a government "can't take care of the elderly and the sick, can't provide jobs for the strong, can't inject young people into the industrial system, and let the shadow of insecurity hang over every family, it is not a government that can or should exist", and social insurance should be responsible for the whole life from cradle to grave. To this end, the Social Insurance Law was promulgated. According to the law, all wage workers who retire at the age of 65 can get a monthly pension of 10 to $85 according to different wage levels. Regarding unemployment insurance, Roosevelt explained: "It can not only help individuals avoid relying on relief when they are dismissed in the future, but also alleviate the impact of economic difficulties by maintaining purchasing power." The source of insurance premium is that half of the insurance premium is paid by working workers and employers, which is equivalent to 1% of workers' wages, and the other half is allocated by the federal government. This social insurance law reflects the strong desire of the broad masses of working people and is welcomed and praised by the vast majority of Americans.
On May 24th, 1937, Roosevelt submitted a widely concerned speech to Congress on the legislation of minimum wage and maximum working hours. The speech admitted that "one third of the population in China, most of whom are engaged in agriculture or industry, can't eat well, dress well and live well". "We must bear in mind that our goal is to improve rather than reduce the living standards of those who are now malnourished, poorly dressed and living in poor conditions. We know that when a large part of our workers are unemployed, overtime and low-level wages cannot increase national income. " Congress did not take action on the bill,1October 1937 12, and Roosevelt proposed it again until June 1938 14. This is the "fair labor standards act" (also known as the "Wage and Working Hours Law"). Its main regulations include working 40 hours a week and minimum wage of 40 cents an hour; It is forbidden to use/kloc-children under 0/6 years old, and it is forbidden to use/kloc-workers under 0/8 years old in dangerous industries. With the development of economy, the minimum wage will be adjusted in the future. Although these social legislations belong to the category of social improvement, they are very beneficial to the broad masses of the people, especially the working class. In order to solve the problem of federal funds for the social insurance system, Roosevelt first implemented a progressive tax based on income and assets. Net income of $50,000 and inheritance of $40,000 are levied at 365,438+0%, and inheritance of more than $5 million is levied at 75%; In the past, the corporate tax was always 13.75%. According to the tax law 1935, the tax rate of companies with incomes below $50,000 is reduced to 12.5%, and the tax rate of companies with incomes above $50,000 is increased to 15%.
Second, the essence of the New Deal:
Use the state to adjust this visible hand and ease the internal contradictions of capitalism.
Third, the main measures:
1, stable wealth;
2. Revitalize industry;
3. Adjust agricultural policies;
4, the implementation of "work for relief".
According to the national industrial revival law, industrial enterprises formulate fair management rules for their own industries, determine the production scale, price level, market distribution wage standard and working hours of each enterprise, and prevent blind competition from causing overproduction, thus strengthening the government's control and regulation of capitalist industrial production.
Fourth, the effect and influence:
The American economy rebounded and the number of unemployed people dropped sharply.
Capitalist countries have strengthened macro-control and management of their economies.
The power of the American federal government has been significantly enhanced.
The capitalist system has been adjusted, consolidated and developed.
He boldly drew lessons from the advantages of socialism, saved the capitalist crisis by means of reform and avoided fascism coming to power.
The New Deal is of great significance in the history of capitalist development in the United States and the world.