How Did The Great Depression Affect Capitalism

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Great Depression: affecting capitalism Capitalism is “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods,by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market”(Merriam-Webster). But when the Great Depression came along, the true meaning of capitalism was lost. A Depression is when “a sustained economic recession in which a nation 's Gross National Product (GNP) is falling and marked by low production and sales and a high rate of business failures and unemployment” (dictionary.com). After the stock market crash of 1929, 1% of Americans controlled 40% of the wealth in America. This affected capitalism because the people own the goods and services and they help control the prices, production, and distribution of goods in the free market. If only one percent of forty percent controlled it that means, the people couldn 't control the prices and production and …show more content…

Herbert Hoover the 31st president of the United States is held by many economists as a cause for the Great Depression(facts about the Great Depression). This is because they believe he didn 't realize the severity of the issue and he did nothing for it(history.com). He took office in 1929 and in the election of 1932, he lost drastically too Franklin D.Roosevelt. After Roosevelt was elected he had different ideas too get the country out of the Depression. One of those ideas was the Great Deal which was a program designed too help those affected by the Great Depression. While it didn 't get the country out if the Great amount of debt they were in it gave people hope that it was going too get better because It helps those in need and it does help the