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How Did Americans Grow During The Roaring Twenties Dbq

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During the Roaring Twenties many people had, as William H. Leuchtenberg said, ‘“get-rich-quick”’, [Doc 2]. And man people did get rich quick. Everybody wanted a piece o the pie that was economic prosperity, but that pie has to run out eventually. With this idea in the heads of millions of Americans extreme overexpansion of many aspects of society led to the “adversity soon demonstrated,” [Doc 1]. John D. Hicks cites just some of the factors that “account for the plunge from prosperity to adversity”. The first issue Hicks addresses is agricultural overexpansion. Farmers were producing more food than could be sold. As supply rises, demand decreases. With a surplus of goods, prices go down. Farmers were producing more, but profiting less. “They …show more content…

Leuchtenberg sad, “There was no single cause of the crash and ensuing depression,” [Doc2]. Many things as stated earlier contributed to the crash, such as overexpansion of credit, goods, industries and rising rates of unemployment. Many Americans saw the Stock Market as an easy way to create wealth by buying stocks cheap, usually at a margin, and selling for a higher price, hopeful to profit. Buying on margin was the act of paying some money on a stock, but loaning the rest from a bank who expected would be paid back when profit was made. Stocks became more expensive to the point where nobody wanted to buy them because of their extreme price. Rushing to sell their stocks, millions of stockholders were unable to find any buyers and quickly their stocks lost all value. Then unable to pay back loans, banks would fail. “The depression touched every area of American life.” [Doc 2]. Many dreamed of becoming rich and prospering as so many were, but even the most careful of people lost their life’s savings. Houghton Mifflin said, "our immediate weak spot was the... stock speulation," [Doc 6].In a song called 'Brother Can You Spare a Dime?' light is shed on all of the hope put forth in the Stock Market. The lyrics read "I was building a dream... Now its done- Brother, can you spare a dime?" [Doc 5]. Many found themselves riding on the back of prosperity one moment, then without the means to meet the standard of living the next. Alongside the devastation of financial wealth plunging down the drain, many other issues worsened the Depression. Dr. Lynn Dumenil notes consequences of the already present devastations of the Depression as well as how, "Divorce, suicide, and vagrancy almost became the norm Women and other minorities were again repressed Child abandonment and starvation was common," [Doc 7]. A great cause of the Depression can be attributed to loss of

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