US Election Discussion

The New Deal has almost nothing to do with the stock market, I don't know what your point here is; the market was beginning to go back up before he was even in office. I suppose you -could- argue that helping the unemployed would cause a larger pool of people, both corporate and consumer, to re-invest, though, in which case, I suppose you are right. Now, he did create a couple of organizations that MONITOR the stock market, but again, those were formed well AFTER the collapse was already over. He did considerably increase the amount of power the executive branch wields, though, so I can't be too happy about that when the goal is a balance of power, but that's a different subject.

I'm not claiming that government should stay out of everything PERIOD...it's the government's job to take care of many things in their jurisdiction, I'm simply arguing that the stock market is not a PART of their jurisdiction. The government's true objective in my eyes is simply to protect the citizens of their country, maintain a basic infrastructure (to clarify, this means a physical infrastructure and a legal infrastructure, I do realize we need laws!), and get the hell out of the way.

You're confusing Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt was a Progressive Republican in the 190x's (not sure, but you can search it up yourself).

The economy was almost entirely unregulated, and "trusts" formed in industries that monopolized certain commodities such as oil, railroads, steel, etc. This era is known as the Gilded Age because the seemingly prosperous America simply hid away all the crap that came about as a result of the unregulated economy -- horrible working conditions, low wages, rampant poverty, and a generally screwing over of the majority of America.

Teddy Roosevelt was the first Republican in a looooooong line of presidents (AKA the "forgettable" presidents because they didn't do jack shit) that actually tried to fix the US. He was known as a "trust-buster" because he split up trusts with lawsuits and enacted anti-trust legislation (ironically, his successor, Taft, actually busted more trusts than TR).

TR also introduced government agencies such as the FDA to regulate businesses. Before the introduction of the FDA, processed food was often unsanitary and even dangerous for your health (read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair).

tl;dr: unregulated economy sucks, business isn't altruistic.