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| | At the same time, a fiery labor organizer named John Lewis started the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which focused on combining garment trade unions (workers unions) and later included auto and steelworkers. Eventually it merged with the AFL in order to become the "AFL-CIO" that is often heard today. | | At the same time, a fiery labor organizer named John Lewis started the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which focused on combining garment trade unions (workers unions) and later included auto and steelworkers. Eventually it merged with the AFL in order to become the "AFL-CIO" that is often heard today. |
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| − | In 1935, the biggest social program of all then passed: the Social Security Act. It provided payments to the elderly by taxing the wages on young workers and employers. It has become a huge liability today, when there are so many old people and relatively few young workers, and the government has repeatedly increased the amount of the tax in order to pay for the "Social Security." | + | In 1935, the biggest social program of all passed: the Social Security Act. It provided payments to the elderly by taxing the wages on young workers and employers. It has become a huge liability today, when there are so many old people and relatively few young workers, and the government has repeatedly increased the amount of the tax in order to pay for the "Social Security." |
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| | + | The New Deal did '''not''' help lift the nation out of the Great Depression. The economy improved a little from 1933 to 1940, but the depression never really ended. FDR became furious with the Supreme Court's invalidation of his New Deal programs (e.g., in ''Schecter Poultry v. U.S.'' (1935), the Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional because it delegated too much power to agency). By 1937 FDR was so angry that he proposed his "court-packing" scheme to appoint new Justices to the Supreme Court who would be favorable to him. This shocked even FDR's own Democratic Party, which then opposed FDR's flagrant violation of the checks and balances in the Constitution, and as a result FDR lost much of his credibility. He weakened himself with this proposal, which never passed, and FDR himself could not persuade Congress to pass much more of his program. |
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| − | Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938: abolished child labor and set national minimum wage ($.40 per hour) and the 40 hr week | + | The final piece of legislation to pass in 1938 was the Fair Labor Standards Act, which abolished child labor and set the national minimum wage at $.40 per hour, and established the 40-hour work week. |
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| − | The New Deal did '''not''' help lift the nation out of the Great Depression. The economy improved a little from 1933 to 1940, but the depression never really ended. FDR became furious with the Supreme Court's invalidation of his New Deal programs (e.g., in ''Schecter Poultry v. U.S.'' (1935), the Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional because it delegated too much power to agency). By 1937 FDR was so angry that he proposed his "court-packing" scheme to appoint new Justices to the Supreme Court who would be favorable to him. This shocked even FDR's own Democratic Party, which then opposed FDR's flagrant violation of the checks and balances in the Constitution, and as a result FDR lost much of his credibility. He weakened himself with this proposal, which never passed, and FDR himself could not persuade Congress to do anything more for his program.
| + | The only real end to the Great Depression was our entry into war: World War II. |
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| − | The only end to the Great Depression was going to be our entry into war: World War II. | |
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| | == World War II == | | == World War II == |