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Economic impact of the great depression
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Following the end of the First World War, the United States was initially prosperous. In 1929, that prosperous age about-faced into a downward spiral that enveloped the entire country. What was eventually called the Great Depression was essentially caused by four major events. At the start, the stock market was strong and thriving and the population was willing to invest in it. Americans were so confident in the market, in fact, that it was common for them to take out loans to fund their investments.
Although the 1920’s were booming and prosperous, the United States soon entered a prolonged economic depression. In October of 1929, prices in the stock market began an uneven downward slide (Document 2). As investors decided that the previous boom in the stock market was over, they sold more stock, thus causing the declination to increase even further. Many citizens of the United States were greatly affected by this. Families who had invested in stock lost most, if not all, or their life savings.
Many Americans lost all their money to the stock market when it crashed in 1929. Americans looked to President Hoover to end the depression. Most of Hoover’s policies were not likely to end the Great Depression. For example, President Hoover believed if the government could save business’ like banks, railroads, insurance, etc. that it would stop business collapse.
The great depression in the US, which began in 1929, and ended in 1938 was caused by many different things all happening at the same time in the economy. The wall street crash in October 1929 was one of the main causes, when the stock markets crashed. This was caused by many things, but the main reason for it was a deflation (which is an event where the general level of prices in an economy are reduced) On October 24th (black Thursday), share prices dropped by 14 billion dollars in a day, and more than 30 billion in a week. This forced many of the banks to close, due to them investing their client’s savings in the stock market.
After the Great War (1914-1919) came the “Roaring Twenties” followed by the Great Depression (1929-1939). America became the richest country in the world at that time after WW I. Then on October 24th 1929 the stock market crashed and America experienced the Great Depression a few days later on October 29th 1929 . Some of the contributing factors of the Great Depression were 1. The crash of the Stock Market on Black Tuesday 2.
The Great Depression by Robert S. McElvaine is pretty straightforward. In the beginning, the book compares the economic crisis of 2008 with the roots of the Great Depression in 1929. He believed that politicians in the twentieth century did not learn their lesson from before. The book also depicts the lives of people during The Roaring Twenties and how the downfall of the economy and overproduction lead to mass unemployment and struggling families. McElvaine’s point of view on the Great Depression was considerably biased.
Everybody was affected, not just city folk. Poverty ran rampant throughout the whole country. The three main causes of the Great Depression are the overuse of credit, uneven distribution of income,
he Great Depression was a time of huge economic downfall. During this time period people lost their homes, money, and everything they had ever earned. Millions of people were affected, including the middle and lower classes, who would just become poorer. People in upper classes, even dropped to the lower class. This downfall began on October 29, 1929, and the leading cause was the crash of the stock market.
In 1924, Congress approved a payment to World War 1 veterans that they would receive a $1,000 bonus for their victory in the war by the year 1945. But in 1932, those veterans decided that they wanted their bonuses early because of the financial pressures they were under. Congress declined, so they marched to Washington, build camps around the city, and vowed to remain there until Congress approved legislation to pay the bonus. The very fact that the veterans, after fighting in the Great War, were willing to go through all this to get compensation from the government truly shows how much Americans at the time needed the money; if they were willing to march up to the Federal Government to demand money, the possibility of them demanding money through Huey Long’s economic plan was certainly applicable. The need for money that existed amongst the poor people, which was essentially the majority of the country at the time, was so intense that all these factors played a role in the rising tensions between the rich and the poor.
The experience that the majority of urban and rural Americans shared together during the depression was a flat out lack of income. The differences were very few, but in the cities, the depression was more prominently visible because of a higher percentage of the population (Schultz 2014). Besides the lack of income and employment, most Americans underwent periods of time being extremely hungry. In the cities, people spent hours waiting in breadlines and were losing their homes to only end up living on the streets in communities referred to as "Hoovervilles" nicknamed after the president (Schultz 2014). In the country, families suffered because of unusual droughts of the 1930 's that caused crops to fail miserably meant the already indebted farmers commonly lost their properties.
The years prior to World War II little hope or improvements for Blacks. It was a time characterized by the realities of Jim Crow and poverty. The Great Depression of the 1930's had double the impact on many Blacks, who were already living below the poverty level before it began. For Southern Blacks, the burden of day-to-day struggle to survive in a society of sanctioned racism had gotten heavier.
The Hard Times which took place in the United States not only affected the stock market itself and the banking system but it also left its mark on the day to day lives of Americans. During the Great Depression, middle-class Americans were drastically affected in several ways. Families from different ethnic, religious, regional backgrounds reacted to the depression in various manners. In 1933, the average household income dropped to $1500 which is 40 percent less than that in 1929 family income of $2300.
In what ways did the Great Depression affect the American people? After a decade of economic prosperity, what seemed like an era that defined the concept of the American dream, quickly came to an end when the stock market on Wall Street collapsed in 1929. The aftermath of the events that occurred on Wall Street would put its heavy mark on the years to follow among the citizens of the United States. Banks closed down, unemployment rose and homelessness increased. It was a widespread national catastrophe that had its impacts on both poor and rich.
The Great Depression The Great Depression was by far one of the worst times of America’s history, and the world’s history. The Depression affected everyone except for the politicians and the wealthy. During the depression a lot of people lost their jobs which caused the unemployment rate to sky rocket to 14% of America’s population was unemployed, and the number would stay their till World War 2, and the depression started in the 1920’s. Middle class workers were hit the hardest in the depression. Most of the middle class citizens lost their jobs.
The Great DepressionTopic: the great depressionQuestion: How did the great depression affect americans?Thesis statement:The great depression affected americans because it destroyed their economy. Millions of families lost theirs savings as many banks collapsed in the 1930’s. The Great Depression was the worst economic drop of all times in the industrial world1. The Great Depression began because of a stock market crash in 1929 and came to end ten years later in 1939, around 15 million americans were unemployed and about half of the American banks failed. It was one of the darkest era in the United States.
