# FDR and the depression

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdr-and-the-depression/681829>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 20, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdr-and-the-depression/681829 "2014-02-20T23:52:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdr-and-the-depression/681829/61 "2014-02-26T04:16:33Z")

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> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> I feel as though I began a thread on calculating a simple ballistic arc, and folks began discussing quantum mechanics. 🙂

You’re kidding, right? You quoted a technical paper on theoretical wage/price policy changing the entire course of the Great Depression. It would have been better to ask about QM! 😃

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**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdr-and-the-depression/681829/62 "2014-02-26T04:33:39Z")

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> [@yellowjacketcoder](#):
>
> So, you agree that government spending can reduce unemployment and raise GDP, and that cutting government spending can cause unemployment to rise and and lower GDP? Looks like we’re on the same page.
> 
> WWII was just government spending with some explosions attached. Think how much the economy would surge if we had put that spending into productive use instead of making things designed to be destroyed. That’s not to say WWII was a bad use of money, just that it doesn’t really matter where the spending is going to stimulate the economy.

Yes. During the Depression, all of FDR’s spending put together increased the debt by about $20 billion. WWII, on the other hand, increased the debt by another $200 billion. If they’d spent all that money beginning in 1931, instead of 1941, the Depression could have ended ten years earlier.

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