The GI Bill
Of all the legislation enacted during the Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, Which one had the most far-reaching effect on American life? Was it the Social Security Act? Perhaps Lend lease? I would suggest that it was the little noticed but widely utilized Veterans Readjustment Act of 1944, AKA the GI Bill of Rights.
Rewarding Returning Servicemen
There had been bills to reward veterans of other wars in the past but none provided such a wide range of service to the returning veterans as this one did. It provided for fifty-two weeks of unemployment compensation, as well as comprehensive educational benefits, low interest mortgage and small business loans and a host of other services meant to ease the veteran from military to civilian life.
Post War Shortages
One of the problems faced by the return vets was a critical shortage of housing. The result was a building boom, which saw Levittown, and thousands of suburbs like it spring across the country. The returning vets armed with their low interest mortgages lined up to buy houses. The result was that for the first time, many Americans owned their homes they lived in.
Another area immediately affected by returning vets were the nations colleges and universities which saw what became known as the GI Bulge. Here too, a critical shortage of housing as wall as faculty and staff strained the institutions to their limits and beyond. However, it also meant that higher education, once the realm of the well to do and very talented, now became available to many more.
Unexpected Results
The results of the GI Bill not only made more Americans home owners and better educated than in the past but it effected a subtle shift in the relationship many people had with the government and government programs. For many it was the first time that a government program outside of public works directly affected them and in many ways it laid the groundwork for many programs to come.
