Upon reading the Marcuse article on public housing, the context and timing of the first project got me thinking. The first New York public housing project took place in the mid-nineteen thirties, the heart of the Great Depression. Under a poised FDR, New York state began housing plans to provide the underprivileged with jobs and the shelter. This plan is just another example of how a checked capitalism can be successful. Government intervention aided thousands of families with housing programs such as the aforementioned. By the end of WWII the government was owed a great debt to soldiers and paid them via housing for them and their loved ones.

     The government’s activism in the thirties and forties was necessary because of the dangerous position of American capitalism, freedom, and democracy found itself in.  I think that we can all agree that the government should intervene in times of distress, but should it actively attempt to prevent the faults of capitalism by aiding the poor?