In August 1936, the Great Plains Drought Area Committee, led by Hugh Bennett, delivered a report on the causes of the Dust Bowl to FDR.
The report argued that the Dust Bowl was caused by human behavior -- it was not a fluke climatic event. Even in the best of times, much of the Plains received only 20 inches of rain per year --- not enough to sustain agriculture. During the Dust Bowl years, annual rainfall averaged 5-12 inches.
70. Wait - is this right? Are Egan//Bennett saying the Plains are unfit for agriculture, even if good conservation practices are followed? Isn't there plenty of agriculture in that part of the country nowadays?
-----------------------------------
The Bennett report said:
"There is no reason to believe the primary factors of climate, temperature, precipitation and winds in the region have undergone fundamental change ... the problem is not the result of a single act of nature, of a single year or even a series of exceptionally bad years."
Rather, it continued, "mistaken public policies have been largely responsible for the situation... including a mistaken homesteading policy ... which led to overcropping and overgrazing and encouragement of a system of agriculture which could not be both permanent and prosperous."
This is fascinating: Egan//Bennett are putting some of the blame for the Dust Bowl on the government's homesteading efforts/encouragement during the prior decades. Presumably, those efforts and encouragement were motivated by a desire to make more Americans direct owners (and workers) of the land, which is an idea itself rooted in Jeffersonian agri-democracy. There seems to be a clear analogy to the [mistaken?] government policy (during the 1990's and 2000's) of decreasing the price of borrowing so as to encourage widespread homeownership among people that could not actually afford to sustain the level of income needed to own the homes.
The lesson here appears to be: policies rooted in a good motive (by the government) can have serious unintended negative consequences, if not sufficiently thought-through.
71. James Madison's (a) three discrete branches, with accompanying checks and balances, and (b) bicameral legislature were two methods for filtering policy ideas in order to root out the bad ones, including the bad ones motivated by "good" goals. OK, then why didn't these "checks" actually work with respect to homesteading policy (back then) and homeownership policy (more recently)? Which branch of government deserves the most blame for government's failure?
72. Was the problem the way that the laws were written, or the way that the executive branch oversaw their implementation?
73. How can the legislative process be tweaked so as to avoid similar mistakes in the future?
74. Did anyone in the federal government actively oppose the loosening of Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac credit in the early 2000's?
I know that the Republicans, during last fall's Presidential campaign, claimed to have opposed Barney Frank's pro-Fannie policies, but I think that's hogwash --- the homeownership encouragement policies started during the Clinton Administration but were definitely further encouraged by Bush (the "ownership society").
