ipl-logo

Depression In America

2637 Words11 Pages

In 1991, amidst sharp conflict and controversy on the subject, an ad hoc committee consisting of ten medical experts from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously to approve the use of Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) within the United States for the treatment of various forms of depression amongst both adults and children. In the fifteen years that have followed, tens of millions of people have been prescribed these SSRIs, which today include Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone, and Remeron. These medications have been hailed as "wonder drugs" by many members of the medical community and are now the most common treatment for almost every form of depression. …show more content…

Everybody seemed to be capitalizing on the continued economic growth and it looked like the good times would never end. Gradually, however, some dark clouds appeared on the horizon. Oh, sure, it was easy enough to ignore the signs that something bad might be on its way since the nation's fundamental economic frame remained secure. Construction was booming and new inventions were quickly transforming from luxury items to essentials. Yes, there were problems in such sectors as textiles, steel and iron, but overall things looked pretty gosh darn swell. It wasn't until farmers began to feel the pinch that the experts really sat up and took notice. Over the course of just a few years, farming income halved and hundreds of thousands were forced to give up their farms, property and equipment. In short order, construction began to take a toll. Over the course of three years, new construction starts fell from 11 million to 9 million units. With people no longer building houses or offices, there was little need for furniture to decorate those non-existence entities and so furniture inventories exploded. Companies responded to the drop in profits by cutting their workforce. Besides furniture, appliances for the household also suffered and those companies soon began cutting their labor force as well. The year was 1929, not 2008, but the similarities are striking. What most people fail to understand is that the Roaring 20's was not a time of great wealth for all Americans. The upper classes enjoyed a prosperous lifestyle like never before and even the upper middle class were treated to a ride. The sad truth, however, is that the overwhelming majority of American citizens saw no equitable increase in their own wages or savings. It is estimated that as much as 70% of America lived through the 1920s on an income of less than $2500 a year. What that figure means in real terms is that 70% of Americans lived from paycheck

Show More
Related
612 Words | 3 Pages

Consequently, rapid expansion took place, peaking in August 1929. During this time, “the production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stock prices much higher than their actual value” (history.com). Additionally during this time, wages were very low, and consumer debt was high. It’s also mentioned that “the agricultural part of the economy was struggling due to drought and falling food prices and banks had an excess of large loans that could not be paid back” (history.com). On the other hand, a text belonging to McKim Dell goes over the topic of the Dust Bowl and what exactly was

Read More
1108 Words | 5 Pages

Nathanaelle pierre-Louis United States history Period: 3 The Great Depression All through the 1920's, new enterprises and new techniques for generation prompted thriving in America. America could utilize its extraordinary supply of crude materials to deliver steel, synthetic compounds, glass, and apparatus that turned into the establishment of a gigantic blast in buyer merchandise (Samuelson, 2). Numerous US nationals contributed on money markets, estimating to make a fast benefit. This awesome thriving finished in October 1929.

Read More
1905 Words | 8 Pages

Zinn claims most of the wealth belonged to the upper class, and the elite made much more improvement than the lower class. To prove his point, he uses statistics such as: “one-tenth of one percent of the families at the top received as much income as 42 percent of the families at the bottom” (Zinn 382). Moreover, to show the dreadful state of the lower class, he recounts, “every year in the 1920s, about 25,000 workers were killed on the job and 100,000 permanently disabled. Two million people in New York City lived in tenements condemned as firetraps” (Zinn 382-383). In contrast, Schweikart and Zinn claim the economic deterioration was a myth and American industry

Read More
957 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Depression, the worst economic low in America’s history, marked the end of a period that was known as being happy for all. The “Roaring 20’s” as they are often referred to, were a cultural transition in America. After the first World War, Americans celebrated by buying things they couldn’t afford, and investing in stocks (two things that often went hand in hand). During this time period, however, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. This wage gap is not the only economic issue that can be seen in this period.

Read More
518 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

During this Boom period as known, most farmers wanted to produce more to satisfy the consumer needs. One major problem which these farmers did not put into consideration was good farming practice. Most farmers were practicing monoculture and over cultivating in one specific place. Most farmers also cut down all trees in order to get a larger portion of lands to cultivate their crops. These practices lead to Dust bowl.

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

America faced many adversities in its past, one of its greatest adversities was not war nor disease, but in fact, an economic disaster. In the years of 1929 – 1939, America suffered exponential damage to its economy and stock market. The Great Depression had severe effects on the United States such as an economic crisis, the need for a new president, a call for action, and as seen in Of Mice and Men, the cause for migrant workers. The peak of the great depression was unarguably the hardest time of the whole great depression. Between the peak and the trough of the downturn, industrial production in the United States declined 47 percent and real Gross Domestic Product fell to 30 percent (Benson, “The Great Depression”).

Read More
546 Words | 3 Pages

”(Holley).Many workers lost their jobs. The stock market also crashed so that made it worse.

Read More
1731 Words | 7 Pages

Watter’s observation of GlaxoSmithKline’s sneaky ways of advertising their product shows that companies want to give their consumers the illusion that they have control. They also want their customers to have confidence in their choice. They are making it okay to have depression, which is a complete transformation

Read More
1384 Words | 6 Pages

During the 1920s, there was considerable growth in income inequality, which led to a decrease in consumer spending and investment in the economy by those who were not wealthy. This created a situation where the economy

Read More
442 Words | 2 Pages

The top 1% of the population held more wealth than the bottom 42%, and many Americans struggled to make ends meet. The high unemployment rates and low wages were major problems. Additionally, agricultural prices were low, leading to rural poverty. This inequality was further exacerbated by policies such as the Tax Cuts of 1921, which favored the wealthy and contributed to the growth of the stock market bubble. As a result, many Americans did not experience the economic prosperity often associated with the Roaring Twenties.

Read More
741 Words | 3 Pages

The thin line that was made between the rich and the poor is what made the two major levels of why class structure became a conflict in the 1920s. “A poor distribution of income compounded the country's economic problems” is what they called it. (Digital History in paragraph 8.) This is used to help validate the reason for the decline of wealth in the 1920s. To help illustrate this,

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

At the time, most Americans were of middle class status, families were living the life that they had dreamed of for many years. The standard of living

Read More
187 Words | 1 Pages

In the late 1920s, a culmination of factors contributed to the fragile economic conditions which led many families to unemployment and poverty. These awful conditions forced many young children to resort to begging, and significantly lessened the morale of the country. Different geographical regions of the country received more harsh repercussions than others, with created more divide between Americans. Moreover, the economic conditions led to a more serious wealth imbalance than ever before, with five percent of Americans containing twenty-five percent of the nation’s wealth. In addition to the wealth imbalance, the unemployment rate was at an all time high with a quarter of Americans seeking employment unable to find work.

Read More
517 Words | 3 Pages

The middle class income growth was suspended while the incomes of those at the top continued to rise dramatically. Such a high level of inequality is not only conflicting with widely held standards of social justice, but it poses a serious threat to America's economy and democracy. “In the 1920s, it was expansion of farm credit, installment loans and home mortgages. In the last decade, it was leveraged borrowing and lending, by home buyers who putno money down or investment banks that lent out $30 for each $1 held.” Since the income inequality during the 1920s laborers in farming, coal mines, and textile mins suffered from a lack of sufficient technology.

Read More

More about Depression In America

Related Topics

Open Document