How much is too much?Our country's founders were all successful individuals who believed in the right of the individual to succeed or fail on their own. Their experience with the British government convinced them that the less government involvement in economic affairs, the better. These beliefs were at the heart of the idea of ​​liberal capitalism: in a capitalist society, for everyone to benefit from economic opportunities, it was necessary for the government not to interfere in the national economy. As Americans, we cling to the belief that if we just work a little harder, because if we sacrifice a little today, tomorrow we will reap the rewards of our labor. Of course, history teaches us that when large corporations and special interest groups dominate an economy through their political influence, individual efforts do not always equal opportunity. There may be times when government intervention is necessary - but the degree of government intervention has always been a problem. As American businesses industrialized, workers' living conditions deteriorated, and a consensus eventually developed under the "Progressives." an umbrella term for different groups who viewed the application of effective business practices as a means of solving societal problems. The key to this belief was the idea that only the government had the recourses necessary to achieve this. This belief, which continued to grow in the late 1800s and early 1900s, would finally be tested in 1929. After World War I, government non-intervention in the economy led to speculation and unbridled borrowing. Many people borrowed money to invest in a stock market that only seemed to know how to go up. Unbeknownst to most Americans, poor economic decisions were being made by both businesses and government economists. Decisions that would have terrible consequences on October 29, 1929, when the stock markets collapsed. President Herbert Hoover, a staunch supporter of the conservative liberal principle of nongovernmental interference, refused to intervene. Like most business people of the time, he believed that economies went through boom and bust cycles. He felt that this period of recession should be allowed to run its course Norton 473). As the economy continued to deteriorate, Americans elected a new president who proposed using the power of government to do something about the economy. As Progressives believed, Franklin Roosevelt believed that only the federal government had the ability to mobilize resources domestically to stimulate the economy..