Today, most average Americans are able to eat out, stroll the mall, purchase decent clothing, or even buy a new phone, but imagine living in the 1930’s where eating a good meal was only fortunate for some. There was an era longing eleven years of dark days, hungry evenings, bankruptcy, and literal depression where America suffered its worst set back of its history. In a complicated time in which it would not matter if you were black or white, male, female or even the richest of them all. The dreaded country collapsed between the years 1929-1940 for several reasons. So what is it that caused this long economic tragedy? Three of the main causes to The Great Depression involved the crash of the stock market, job loss and buying on credit.
To begin with, the crash of the stock market was the starting factor that let to the downfall of many lives. The stock market was flourishing with investors but reduced economy by 60% over all (Document 1). Around 4 million Americans including many banks had invested large amounts of money in stocks hoping to earn gains (Document 3). On the other hand, all the speculation and margin buying increased stock prices but eventually ended with a downslide of $14,000,000,000 (Document 2, 5).
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Where the majority was evicted from their homes and ended up in the streets losing everything. Although African Americans and Latinos were more put out facing racial criticism, competing with whites on a slight opportunity of a job, farmers had it the worst. Struggling with the fact that they grew more crops than they could sell at profit including the decrease of demand at 40% (Document 11). Many men in the streets stopped trying after years of discouragement but unfortunately overall, the unemployment numbers went from 8.02 to 13 million between 1931-1934 (document
The great depression in the US, which began in 1929, and ended in 1938 was caused by many different things all happening at the same time in the economy. The wall street crash in October 1929 was one of the main causes, when the stock markets crashed. This was caused by many things, but the main reason for it was a deflation (which is an event where the general level of prices in an economy are reduced) On October 24th (black Thursday), share prices dropped by 14 billion dollars in a day, and more than 30 billion in a week. This forced many of the banks to close, due to them investing their client’s savings in the stock market.
“As stock prices began to drop,
This shows how bad the businesses were doing during that time. It impacted people so much that it even impacted that way they lived. For example, parents would send their kids out on the streets to beg for food because there was limitation of food sources you could get. This situation also impacted the farmers on the country side. Like even though, the farmers could grow their own food, they had machinery and land mortgages that they couldn’t pay.
1930’s From the Depression to the Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought hope as he promised “prompt, vigorous action, and as asserted in his Inaugural Address, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” FDR was the president during the Depression, and from that moment on, he turned America around. The 1930’s featured new fashions, lots of inventions, and unfortunately the Great Depression. The 1930’s in the United States was a rough time.
Some of the main reasons that made the Great Depression so severe were, the U.S. no longer had the frontier with its economic troubles, meaning that the U.S safety valve had vanished. No matter how far anyone traveled across the United States, they would still be trapped inside the horrible depression. Besides being trapped within the depression some of the main causes for it revolved around Overproduction and Overspeculation. People would often but stocks with only 10% down payment and they would then pay the rest with
When The great depression struck it hit the economy and the people hard during the Great Depression, The Federal Government took a more active role in the economic, political, and social problems centering around the Great Depression and their new role also developed more effective answers than their past role in inactivity. Americans all over the world were listening to the radio and hearing the news of the crash of the stock market. The Great Depression was important to U.S history because it showed us the flaws in our financial system and now we are able to fix those errors. At first,"Herbert Hoover had bad luck to be president when the great depression hit.
The Great Depression, which was an economic downfall that started in 1929, lasted about a decade, but what caused it to spread in the first place? There were many key factors that caused the Depression to start, but what really ignited the spread of it internationally was everyone's debt to each other. After World War 1, many countries depended on one another to try and recover because of everything they lost during the war itself. For example, Britain was destroyed completely and had no way of paying for things to be fixed. Their economy was in a slump after war so The United States stepped in to aid.
Everything was normal, people were happy with jobs and being able to provide a home and food for their families. Until things weren’t normal. The stock markets crashed on October 29, 1929. This was the beginning an economic downfall throughout the nation and most of the world. Many people had lost their jobs and were homeless.
The stock market crash sparked the new beginning of an era. An era known as the Great Depression where millions lived in poverty and were being fired from their jobs or at least having their wages cut. Banks all across America and Europe went bankrupt due to many people wanting to withdraw money from the banks. The depression lasted eleven years, at least in America, and in that time, many people died or went homeless, but some people helped others go through the Great Depression. Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, and Will Rogers were some of those people who helped influence society during the depression.
The people were in debt and and just dug themselves a deeper hole “,combined with production of more and more goods and rising personal debt,”(The Great Depressions) and had no way of making money to pay it all back without jobs. This all goes back to the roaring twenties when eh people bought and bought and dint think of the consequences. The biggest problem for the American was the stock market crash “the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. ”(The Great Depression) leading them into social mayhem. The people although causing this distress themselves sought out other things to blame while being completely helpless in their
The Great Depression was catastrophic. It was a critical time period in our history when our economy crashed. People lost their jobs, and families became homeless. Today, 564,708 people are homeless. Back then, two million people were homeless.
In 1929, the U.S. was hit with the worst economic crisis in the history of the country, the Great Depression. The Great Depression left millions of people unemployed and cost millions their life's savings. The Depression lasted for ten long years for the American people. Since the Great Depression ended, people have studied it, trying to figure out what happened that started it all. The problem was, in fact, the poor economic habits of the people at the time, such as speculation, income maldistribution, and overproduction.
Unrestrained speculation and margin buying were the two big things in the Stock Market. Speculators bought stocks with money they borrowed. They would used those stocks as collateral to buy more stock. So if that person could not repay the loan, they would forfeit their stocks. Margin buying was a way of attracting the less wealthy to buy stocks.
There began to be a gradual decline in prices and the stock market ruptured. On October 24, 1929, the infamous “Black Thursday” took place, where stock holders went on a panic selling spree. Things then went from bad to worse, stock prices went down 33 percent. People stopped purchasing goods and business investments decreased after the crash. In the fall of 1930, the first of four major waves
In the late 1920s, a culmination of factors, both foreign and domestic, led many American families into unemployment and poverty. The Great Depression was a time of widespread poverty and forced migration, as it was common for young children to beg for money and search trash cans for food. Accordingly, different geographical regions were impacted more than others, which divided Americans. The economy experienced a greater wealth imbalance than ever before, as a small portion of Americans controlled an disproportionate percentage of the nation’s wealth. Additionally, the unemployment rate reached an all time high, with a quarter of Americans unable to find employment, further establishing socioeconomic divide.