What Southern senators *used* to propose during Depressions...

[villager]

Doing a little reading on Huey Long tonight:

<snip>

Long was a staunch opponent of the Federal Reserve Bank. Together with a group of Congressmen and Senators, Long believed the Federal Reserve's policies to be the true cause of the Great Depression. Long made speeches denouncing the large banking houses of Morgan and Rockefeller centered in New York which owned stock in the Federal Reserve System. He believed that they controlled the monetary system to their own benefit, instead of the general public's benefit.

As an alternative, Long proposed federal legislation capping personal fortunes, income and inheritances. He used radio broadcasts and founded a national newspaper, the American Progress, to promote his ideas and accomplishments before a national audience. In 1934, he unveiled an economic plan he called Share Our Wealth. Long argued there was enough wealth in the country for every individual to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, but that it was unfairly concentrated in the hands of a few millionaire bankers, businessmen and industrialists.

Long proposed a new progressive tax code designed to limit the size of personal fortunes. The new tax code would tax the first million dollars of wealth at zero. The second million dollars of wealth would be taxed at 1%. The third million at 2%; the fourth million at 4%; the fifth million at 8%; the sixth million at 16%; the seventh million at 32%; the eighth million at 64%; and the remainder at 100%. Income tax rates would be at 100% for all incomes over $1 million.<13>

The resulting funds would be used to guarantee every family a basic household grant of $5,000 and a minimum annual income of $2,000-3,000, or one-third of the average family income. Long supplemented his plan with proposals for free primary and college education, old-age pensions, veterans' benefits, federal assistance to farmers, public works projects, and limiting the work week to thirty hours...

<snip>

With the Senate unwilling to support his proposals, in February 1934 Long formed a national political organization, the Share Our Wealth Society. A network of local clubs led by national organizer Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith, the Share Our Wealth Society was intended to operate outside of and in opposition to the Democratic Party and the Roosevelt administration. By 1935, the society had over 7.5 million members in 27,000 clubs across the country. Long's Senate office received an average of 60,000 letters a week. Some historians believe that pressure from Long and his organization contributed to Roosevelt's "turn to the left" in 1935. He enacted the Second New Deal, including the Social Security Act. In private, Roosevelt candidly admitted to trying to "steal Long's thunder."<14>

<snip>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long

[hayu_lol]

1. It is very difficult for people born in the mid-60s to the present...

to realize just how poor most of our citizens were in the 20s and 30s. You can read about it, see movies about it, listen to supposedly educated pundits speak about it...but the bottom line was that most Americans were really poor by any standard that you want to apply. We were still very much a country of small family farms that were barely making it.

Life was fairly simple, even in fairly well off homes. The utility companies sold all manner of electric or gas appliances to boost peoples use of those fuels and services.

The wealthy, not touched by conditions felt by workers, continued the trends set up in the Gilded Age. Overconsumption of everything. The middle class, just beginning to grow, was still extremely conservative in the way they lived. In many cases, if you wanted a new piece of furniture for your home, you went out to the shed or garage and built it yourself.

People used ice boxes rather than refrigerators. Many women did have wringer washers. Hot water heaters were little black things that were on a back porch hanging from the ceiling...demand water heaters they were known as. Stoves and ovens were functional since most meals were made from scratch. Heating in Southern CA where I grew up...was restricted to the occasional space heater, attached by rubber hose to a gas pipe nipple coming out of the wall. In cold climates, the wood or coal stove provided the heat--what there was of it.

Most women canned or otherwise prepared home-grown vegetables for future use. There were times for that, that equaled the time that kids spent with marbles and kites. Everything really did have a season.

People may have hated Long for his ideas...or Roosevelt for his...but they listened and hoped. There was a real reason behind such plans...a hope to lift the bottom of society up to a better life.

How we got to where we are today is the question. Was it simply the war and people on the move?

[Vogon_Glory]

2. Agree. Their living conditions were AWFUL!

I read the Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of the Survivors of the Great American Dust Bowl not so long ago, and was struck by descriptions of the living conditions of most of the Great Plains farmers and ranchers even BEFORE the drought and Dust Bowl hit. Today, those would be described as Third World living standards and, as often as not, would be described as those of the poorer sectors of Third World countries.

[villager]

4. And yet, I wonder if those "poorer" communities were in a better condition to survive

...a serious economic collapse than we are.

Because they were close knit, could grow and can food, make furniture and repair their own clothes, etc...

Now, if the trucks stopped running to fill up the shelves?

Mobs on the street...

...or are we already seeing the beginnings of those?

[Lars39]

6. Most of what you just described would have been viewed as well off

in rural TN during that time. People still used creeks to keep food cold. Washday was heating water on the stove and taking it out in the yard. It was like life in the 1800's for a lot of people.

[CTyankee]

3. Wonderful history! It's so interesting...share the wealth not a new idea!

However, the working class in this country has been so mesmerized by the Becks and Limbaughs that they think they'll be rich one day, so better not do anything to equalize income across the board in our society. Socialism, ya know....

[rudy23]

5. I always want people who snark on the South to remember that Louisiana kept FDR moving leftward

Huey Long was that Senator who held him accountable to the left.

Many people want Democrats to give up on us altogether. I disagree. I firmly believe liberal populism has a place in the South.