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