Farmers Vs Farm Workers

The longest and deepest downturn in the history of the United States and the modern industrial economy lasted more than a decade, beginning in 1929 and ending during World War II in 1941. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed the banks on March 4, 1933, to stave off bank failures, many people were left with no way to pay their bills, so even people who did not fit the classic definition of "poverty" were at least insolvent. Farm workers and farmers were equally hard hit. Many farmers saved their crops for several years rather than sell them for less than their investment to raise the crops in the first place. Eventually, they had to sell, but often the sale was at a loss. Thus, they had no way to pay their workers or sharecroppers, much

People left their homes and went in search of jobs. During the depression, "riding the rails" or illegally riding in empty boxcars on freight trains became a common method of moving from place to place, either remaining homeless or seeking work. Those who participated in this lifestyle were called "hoboes" or "bums" or "tramps." Factory workers were not much better off than farm workers. Collective bargaining wasn 't guaranteed; workers often worked long days and long weeks for low wages. Children were paid lower wages than adults for the same work week and the same jobs. The Wagner Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act were enacted to combat the problems of factory workers. The FLSA established the 40-hour work week, restricted child labor that was competing with adults, and established the minimum wage for covered jobs at 25 cents an hour. Because savings were wiped out with the bank failures, many elderly and disabled people had no way to support themselves and were not able

government used borrowed funds to create employment opportunities: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority flood-control program (TVA) are examples of jobs created by the federal government to alleviate poverty to some extent. The theory is that eventually, durable goods will wear out and have to be replaced, thus creating demand, thus providing real jobs creating real products for which there is a real demand, and thus providing incomes which will be spent on all products including non-durable goods and services. What actually hastened the end of the Great Depression, though, was the start of World War II. People were "given" the job of fighting the war and producing materials, machinery, and means to fight.

I do not think the Great Depression could have been avoided: we simply do not live in a perfect world. There is no way of telling when or if the next depression will occur. I feel if the governments worked together then the depression would not have been horrible as it ended up being. Did the nations not know that they influenced the course of the depression and in turn, the course of history. Another reason why the depression lasted so long was because politicians were so busy in pointing fingers at each other instead of resolving