NEW DEAL

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1933.   Among other things, it was his task to bring the country out of the Great Economic Depression which had befell the world.  Unemployment was a huge problem.  He offered and implemented what he called the New Deal.  He established the Works Program Administration (WPA) to oversee a vast array of public works projects and other programs.

Maybe the most visible of these endeavors was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  This corp was made up of unemployed single men from 17-28 years of age.  A total of 3 million men participated in the program.  The most employed at any one time was about 300,000.  The program was closed at the start of World War II.

This group lived in camps and built highways, air fields, dams, buildings, fire towers in forests, irrigation and drainage work.   They had little in the way of heavy equipment -  pretty much, "Here's a shovel, go build something."  It worked. 

It wouldn't work today.  Too many hoops to jump through before the government will allow you to build something.  It takes years, sometimes, to get an environmental impact statement on a proposed project.  In the 1930's the government spurred progress;  today, it hinders it.  We have so much more government than we need.  It's a problem that probably can't be solved.

Now you know where the 'squad' got the name of their vision "The Green New Deal." Unemployment is not a problem today.  Today, its all about the 'green'.