Question

Why was the National Recovery Administration unsuccessful?

Workers complained about the projects it gave them.

The rules and codes it created were too complex.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

Business and labor leaders did not support it.

Answer 1

i think its A or B but idk :/

Answer 2

Tricky. It depends a little on the politics of your teacher. He might want the second, which is closest to the truth, but if he likes government command of the economy he might prefer the third, because it was cut short by being declared unconstitutional. I would tend to go with the second, which has the virtue of being closer to the truth.

The true answer is that the NRA was indeed successful at what it was really meant to do, which was preserve the status quo -- keep people who had jobs in them, keep their wages as high as they'd been before, keep profitable businesses profitable, and prevent major changes and shakeups in the various industries. But since it actually worked to preserve the status quo -- keep the rich rich and the poor poor -- it did nothing at all to improve unemployment. Indeed, it could not have, since reducing unemployment would've required wages generally to fall (spreading the same labor costs out among more workers), or significant business innovation (more efficient start-up companie replacing older less efficient companies). Hence for the headline numbers of the Great Depression -- unemployment -- it not only did nothing, it actively worked *against* any kind of real long-term solution, because it was designed by those who had good access to legislators, which would be wealthy people, political donors, the heads of urban machines and unions, and it was really designed to preserve their fortunes in a difficult time. Of course, they lied about that, and *said* it was all about helping the unemployed guy in the street. But cynicism is as old as humanity.

You see a similar thing today with the "housing market." Everyone will tell you the housing market is terrible and government needs to intervene strongly -- and so it has. But look carefully at what it has actually done, and who it actually benefit. All the actions of government to date have served to preserve the status quo: let people who bought houses they couldn't afford stay in them, let people who lent money in bad loans not have that loan default (not be repaid), prop up the price of houses at levels that are historically too high. The people who end up losing in this whole game are ironically enough those you'd think you'd want to help -- e.g. young people renting, who would like to buy their first house. But keeping the prices of houses sky-high doesn't help them at all.

Both these processes display the classic flaw in government intervention in the economy, which is that an economy is a very complex thing, and it's extremely difficult and nonobvious how to change things for the better. It's a "black box." So that makes it very easy for people to propose various programs that claim to, or might seem to, help problem X while in fact accomplishing an entirely different goal Y. And might Y be? Very often, it is preserving the status quo, because those who have the most power and influence and money -- who can, therefore, get to legislators and affect their information and inclination -- are exactly those who are doing well under the status quo. Nobody who is poor NOW but might become rich LATER ever has good access to a legislator. So law and government almost always services the past, and seeks to preserve traditional forms of wealth, even when it claims to be doing the opposite to seem glamorous or avant-garde.

Answer 3

What made the National Recovery Administration unsuccessful? is Businesses could easily violate the codes

Answer 4

thank you

Answer 5

welcome @evergirl i know how hard it is when you just want help to find the answer, and someone replies with a long reserach answer that in the end doesn't even help you.

Answer 6

haha ya lol

Answer 7

Correct answer was B, I took the test and got it right :)

Answer 8

b