for economics usa, i'm david schoumacher.tioning is made possible by the annenberg/cpb project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center annenberg media ♪ nenberg media ♪ many elderly americans were too old to work. pensions were non-existent savings gone. what was franklin delano roosevelt's answer to the needs of older americans? too many young people were

for economics usa, this is david schoumacher.b project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center nenberg media ♪ for information about this and other annenberg media programs call 1-800-learner and visit us at www.learner.org.

this is david schoumacher for economics usa.annenberg/cpb project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center

this is david schoumacher.

i'm david schoumacher.re have always been people left out of the american dream -- the young, the old the ill, the untrained. and those who've just lost out in a competitive economy which has losers as well as winners. today we take it for granted that the government has a role to play in reducing poverty and we argue only about how and how much. but before food stamps and public housing before government aid to the elderly what happened when the elderly faced the great depression? i see 1/3 of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad ill-nourished... schoumacher: the great depression cut too wide and too deep for business-as-usual. the depression demanded new answers to poverty. no group suffered more than the elderly. savings accounts were wiped out, pensions were rare family resources, gone. the needs of the elderly havelways carried a special urgency. not everyone will become unemployed or disabled but we wl all get old. how could depression america otect ittizens from the hazar of old age? ericans looked toheirre

i'm david schoumacher. can see the forces that control a farmer's economic wellbeing at work here at this farmers' market. taken together it demonstrates a concept that economists call "perfect competition." in other words, every farmer who raises, say, tomatoes, is in competition with every other farmer who raises tomatoes. the market determines the price through the interplay of supply and demand. so the farmer is a "price taker," not a "price maker," and he tries to produce at the lowest possible cost and produce as much as he can as long as he can turn a profit. at the beginning of the 20th century, the farmers felt secure in their calling as they toiled to supply all the foods a growing nation demanded. so why, just 20 years later, were so many farmers forced to leave the land? their problems began with the entry of the united states into world war i. president woodrow wilson challenged the nation's farmers to dramacally increase food production. "food will win the war," he told them. announcer: wheat

i'm david schoumacher. united states has always been blessed with vast natural resources, including some things we used to take for granted, like fresh water and clean, healthy air. but not any longer. in the past few decades, we've learned that industrial activity carries with it a substantial environmental price tag. if we want fresher waterand healthier air, somebody is going to have to pay for it as we found in the tiny town of silver bay, on the shores of lake superior. 30 years ago this part of minnesota was practically a wilderness area. thenshortly afteworld waii some farsighteentrepreneurs cided there was money to be made in a rock called taconite, found here in abundance, near the famous mesabi iron range. they called their venturethe reserve mining company. ruth erickson remembers the early days before the trouble started. anybody that came here to work was in -- [ dog barks ] shush! -- was in bad shape economically. and reserve ilt the town they furnished us with our medical facilities fire, amb

this is david schoumacher.berg media ♪ ford's model t seemed like the perfect car. it never wore out, never went out of style. how could it be beat? the tva and other electric companies bought huneds of mlions of dollars worth of eipment every year. what lengths would the manufacturers of this equipment go to to make sure that the price was right? for 40 years, regulation protected the airline industry