Thursday, December 26, 2013

Affordable Housing During the New Deal

Above: A WPA poster advertising the availability of affordable housing, circa 1936-40. This was from an era when many legislators cared about middle and low-income Americans. Today, unfortunately, many politicians are more concerned about categorizing Americans as "makers" or "takers," so they can rake in campaign cash from those they label the "makers." (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)

Above: WPA poster, image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Above: This WPA poster was created between 1941 and 1943. It shows how Americans came together when the going got rough, i.e., the Great Depression and World War II. Today, we're seeing very little of this camaraderie in America. Instead, we're seeing a massive domestic spying program, the largest prison-industrial complex in the world, and the increasing militarization of our police. We're exchanging the hope, optimism, and positive outcomes of the New Deal for a culture of pessimism, mistrust, and punishment. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.) 

Above: New Deal policymakers understood the role of one's environment in criminal behavior; so they created clean, planned communities that still thrive today, such as Greenbelt, Maryland. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)  
   


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