Causes And Effects Of The Great Depression

Joshua Bradshaw

Mr. Brown

English 11 B/Period 4

18 March 2016

Causes and Effects of the Great Depression Over the course of the Great Depression, the United States’ economic and social well-being was immensly impacted. Debate on what one thing caused the Depression is futile as it was an accumulation of many different events. Although different, these events, as result, caused the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s took its toll on the failing farms. Along with the stock market crash of 1929, overproduction, and corruption in the world economy, the United States plumetted into the worst economic depression it had ever experienced. The effects of the magnitude of this tragedy soon followed. Unemployment rates skyrocketed as a result

This period of time experienced the “most severe drought in the nation’s recorded history” (Richardson 3). The farms in the middle of the country did not have the access to water that they depended on. Poor farming techniques caused the dirt to lose life and become like dust, both giving the event the name and forcing farmers to migrate (Richardson 3). Families who had depended on their farms for everything were forced to leave. People affected by the Dust Bowl not only left their homes behind, but a piece of their life too. Economically, these families and the country as a whole suffered. A depression occurs when supply and demand is thrown off and cannot recover (Smiley 34). Through the loss of farmers and available crops, the supply was lowered significantly. Not only were farmers gone but that land remained dead and unfarmable. This added to the negative effects the stock market crash caused. In terms of today’s money, the U.S. government spent billions of dollars to restore this land (Richardson 3). Money was being spent to restore a very important piece of the economy. The process by which the government went about doing it had a price tag that was hard to pay. The Dust Bowl ruined an industry while forcing the government to spend money. Although these problems seemed to be only in the U.S., the world economy was

President Roosevelt made promises to make this happen (Nelson 1). This plan basically was a list of groups and actions that would give jobs and relief to struggling Americans (Nelson 1). As explained before, some sort of actions needed to be taken. The plan itself began the welfare system that we are still working on today while beginning to allow the government to be more involved in the nation’s economy (Nelson 8). These actions had a longer effect than just immediate relief. Welfare in our country began to gain traction by this new formation of it. A program called the “Civilian Conservation Corps” was started to give younger men work while improving different parts of the country (Salmond 308). This program put these men to work on improving “environmental and infrastructure problems” while teaching them important skills (Salmond 308). Preceding the Great Depression, the government kept out of the way of the way of big businesses. After realizing that this style did not work out, they began to move in and set up regulations (Nelson 8). The Depression caused such impactful events that a plan just as strong was needed to fight against it. Both immediate and lasting effects were clearly results of this. Economically and socially, the country was forced to change. These changes are seen in today’s society and economy just as they were back then. The Depression caused more