Letters

From the July 2001 issue

(Page 5 of 5)

Dan Hardy
Austin, TX

Michael Valdez Moses replies: I welcome Mr. Hardy's suggestion that "the New Deal slowed down a cyclical recovery." As Lawrence W. Reed argues in his essay Great Myths of the Great Depression, "The 'economic stimulus' of Franklin Roose-velt's New Deal...achieved a real 'first': a depression within a depression!"

In support of my claim that the nation sank more deeply into depression following the New Deal's initiation, I would cite historian Paul Johnson. He states in his book Modern Times that "1937 was the only reasonably good year, when unemployment, at 14.3 per cent, actually dipped below 8 million; but by the end of the year the economy was in free fall again -- the fastest fall so far recorded -- and unemployment was at 19 per cent the following year." Johnson also notes that, besides a blip in '37, it was not until 1941 that "the dollar value of production finally passed 1929 levels."

In absolute terms, the Great Depression may have "bottomed out" by the end of 1933, but the unprecedented rate of economic contraction in 1937 and the prolonged duration of the depression, which lasted until World War II, argues against the notion that the New Deal was anything but a spectacular failure.

Unbalanced?

Imagine my shock when Jeff A. Taylor ("Balance Sheet," April) gave a down arrow to President Bush for wanting to reduce government spending. I am in complete shock. I empathize with Taylor, who is upset with the proposed $20 million cutback on funding for research on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Just imagine what could be accomplished if the government spent $40 million, or how about $1 trillion, on research! No doubt Alzheimer's would be eradicated, as well as all of society's ills. Notice my sarcasm. Mr. Taylor is obviously so perplexed by President Bush's commitment to reducing the incidence of abortion that he is willing to forgo his libertarian principles. If abortion weren't at issue, I imagine Taylor's criticism would quickly change to praise.

Josh Scandlen
Dayton, VA

Jeff A. Taylor replies:I assess plus and minuses in reference to the real world. In Taylorland, we'd have zero federal funding of such research, along with about eight fewer Cabinet agencies. But as that isn't the world we live in, the question is: Given that money will be spent on dubious things, is it possible for cash to go to the less dubious?

I consider stem cell research less dubious for several reasons. First, $20 million is absolutely nothing in the realm of federal spending. It is just a fraction of the many billions in new spending that the Bush team plans. Second, all available evidence suggests stem cell research is worthwhile -- several rungs above, say, road improvements to every cow track that passes in front of a car dealership owned by the relative of a congressman. Third, there is the sad fact that federal research money really does seem to give many labs and scientists a stamp of validity.

Mr. Scandlen is correct that abortion plays in my negative assessment of the proposed policy change. But not for the reason he suspects. The abortion angle tells us that the policy is being driven by political factors quite apart from the merits of the research. That is never a good way to run a country.

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