Stereotypes Of Suffering In Australia During The Great Depression

On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, affecting millions of people worldwide (Stevens).[a] Australia was one of the most directly affected countries to suffer from this recession, due to their increasing debt to oversea countries and decline in trade (Stevens). Lots of Australian citizens were unemployed during this time. Although the Great Depression was a time of great suffering in the lives of citizens, wealthy government officials were unaffected and did not provide much aid for the poor.[b]
Lots of Australian citizens suffered[c] greatly during the Great Depression. Despite many people’s beliefs, losing a job meant much more than just financial problems for the majority of Australians; they lost self esteem as well (Williamson).

Children were also used as sources of cheap labor in factories because of the high cost of school and the desperate need for an income[d] (Williamson). The people suffering most during the Great Depression were the working class and the unemployed[e]. To make matters worse[f], in 1931, the Arbitration Court decreased wages by 20% (Williamson). In an attempt to help poor Australian citizens, wealthier people and the government set up charity groups. These groups were unable to help such a large group of people, and people were reluctant to accept help due to the many negative stereotypes associated with it[g] (“Great Depression”). The government attempted to help starving, unemployed citizens with an amount of money called the susso, which was barely enough for the basic food needs of a person and was only available to select people (“Great Depression”). When shown the amount of money the susso provided, one Australian commented[h] “Many spend more on a dog[i]”. The working class was very suspicious of not only just charity help, but the government as a whole. They were unhappy with the government’s

The wealthier citizens were able to carry on their activities as normal. The Depression took no toll on their everyday lives, and upper-class politicians were even able to live in leisure (Williamson). The government did offer the susso, but this amount of money was often less than minimum wage and only available to those who participated in “relief work” assigned by the government (Stevens). Those who refused to work had their susso taken away, and additionally, the government often assigned people to work far away from their families (Stevens). The only other government-offered aid was called the traveller’s ration card, and was used to discourage hobo camps from forming[l] (Stevens). To receive this card, men must have travelled at least fifty miles during the week (Stevens). In order to do so, men would often hop on trains to avoid having to pay fare, endangering themselves and cheating the train drivers out of money (Stevens). Besides the susso and traveller’s ration, two mostly ineffective forms of aid, the government did not make any attempts to assist its citizens. Wealthy politicians were more concerned of their social class than of their citizens (Williamson). However, as their industries failed and exports fell, they began to realize how serious the recession was (Stevens). In a