ipl-logo

What Caused The Great Depression Dbq Analysis

1159 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Economic impact of the great depression

Imagine it's October 28, 1929, living a lavish lifestyle, owning a mansion, sailing on a 100 foot yacht every weekend, and having what seems like unlimited money that can be spent on anything at anytime. Then, all of a sudden, October 29, 1929 comes. The stock market crashes, banks are closing everywhere, and personal possessions are being foreclosed upon. The greatest economic downfall in the history of the United States has just began. This would become known as the Great Depression, which suited the time period between 1929 and 1941 perfectly. 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, …show more content…

The poverty line in 1929 was considered to be an annual income of at least $2000. Most people,at the beginning of 1929, were making that and living happily. But, according to Frederick Lewis Allen’s, The Big Change, the US distribution of income was so uneven that 60% of the population was living in poverty. (Doc. 9). With over half of the country living in poverty, businesses had to lower prices and that caused the businesses to lose money and lay off workers, leading to even more impoverished families. According to the same document, only 40% of Americans were making what was considered a liveable income. (Doc. 9) That 40% of people also had a majority of the money that existed in the United States, which means that less than half of the country could actually pay for the things they wanted, the other 60% could barely, if even, afford the things they needed. Also, 5% of the American populous received 33% of the national income, which means that one out of every three dollars would go to this 5% of people. (Doc. 9). With this small amount of people making this large amount of money, not everyone in the country could even have money, which lead to the massive amounts of poverty. Uneven distribution of income led to the great depression because most of the income went to less than half of the population of the entire country, and 5% of the people made 33% of the …show more content…

People trusted the “Buy now, Pay later” idea, so much so that they bought so much, and didn't have enough money to pay later. The distribution in income was only favorable for 40% of the entire population, and the citizens were gambling on their stock investments and thought nothing could go wrong. Imagine it is October 28, 1929, living a lavish lifestyle in your mansion, only to have the all of the dreams that came true crushed the very next

Show More
Related
710 Words | 3 Pages

People bought stocks with the speculation of benefit to optimistically help support their families, as well as being able to have all home necessities. The fight for a small profit at the least was strong and intense because of the little amount of money there was to spread between businesses and citizens. Americans began to overextend their budgets and purchased more stocks at higher prices than what they were actually worth. William E. Leuchtenburg stated in The Perils of Prosperity that, “With debt no longer being shameful ..... consumers bought goods on installment at a rate faster than their income was expanding” (Doc 6).

Read More
383 Words | 2 Pages

Speculation and installment buying involved the decisions Americans made that caused the economy to plummet. In 1929 stocks began to be worth more than the value of the company. Most people believed that investing in stocks was the flawless way to become rich and that anyone could do it.

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The article by Edwin Gay and pictures compiled by Cary Nelson are both descriptions of how the Great Depression was and the several impacts that it had on the American economy. The range of the great depression is unprecedentedly wide according to Edwin Gay. The great depression was believed to have started from the collapse of the US stock market in 1929. This was shown in a picture as compiled by Cary Nelson

Read More
817 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

For example, In Document five it states that in 1929, a collapse of the American Prosperity happen. Which means people was putting a lot of their money into securities hoping to the make the stocks rise. People began gambling which made a lot of them go into debt (Harry J. Carman and Harold C. Syrett, A History of the American People, 1952). Also a lot of people were speculating, meaning investors was putting money towards stocks hoping to gain, but risking a loss. By 1931, six million Americans could not find work.

Read More
766 Words | 4 Pages

Now how does this family income connect with income distribution? The money given out to families is like a widespread poverty in America that hurts big business. If only the rich people buy and the poor don’t buy they can lose their jobs cannot afford the luxuries then there isn’t money to make a profit. Which leads companies lay off workers and the laid off workers don’t have a job now They can’t buy from companies so then companies cannot make a profit. According to document 9 with the article, the poverty line for the average American family in 1929 was 1,500-2,000 dollars.

Read More
979 Words | 4 Pages

The percentage of Americans that were losing jobs was outrageous “25 percent of all workers and 37 percent of all nonfarm workers were completely out of work. ”(Great Depression) and that only increased. The people moved and were kicked out of their lands feed to find work elsewhere but work was scarce and was no where to be found. The african americans also had a harder time finding work as the whites were given unfair priority. Their was a substantial gap between the rich and the poor and the poor was the lowest percentage of people in the Americas.

Read More
930 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Depression was one of the lowest economic struggles in Canadian history. Throughout this tough time period banks started failing and shutting down. Businesses shut down as well because they were going bankrupt. Additionally the drought that hit in the mid 1930’s caused many people to lose their lives or flee the country. The Great Depression was caused by many social, economic and environmental issues.

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

During the Great Depression the unemployment rate went up, they were forced to eat at soup kitchens or go through garbage cans for food, and they even had to build shelter out of cardboard. The first underlying cause of the Great Depression was underconsumption and overproduction. Many things contributed to the underconsumption of goods. The production line kept producing goods even when people could not afford to buy them.

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

The majority of people made under 2,000 dollars a year (Document 9) which was considered the bare minimum to live off of, the buy all of the basic essentials. These people didn’t have any money to spend on luxury items and couldn’t buy on credit. During this time, some companies priced their goods at a higher price than the majority of people made in a year, like boats that were priced anywhere from 10,000 dollars to 35,000 dollars (Document 8). With nobody to buy from them, these businesses were left without a profit and began going bankrupt. An average family before the depression with two people working full time jobs only made around twenty dollars a week (Document 7).

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Depression is a dark period of American history. This period was earmarked by the implosion of a weakened banking system and resulted in the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. The ensuing years saw an incalculable amount of joblessness, extreme poverty and vast financial ruin. No community was hit harder by this period than American minorities. Still struggling from the unhealed wounds of the civil war, the scars of immigration and sexual discrimination; blacks, Latinos and women faced disparities unlike no other.

Read More
1040 Words | 5 Pages

7). This is significant because there was no money to provide for their family. This caused millions of people to die from starvation. The Great Depression was a very economic

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

There began to be a gradual decline in prices and the stock market ruptured. On October 24, 1929, the infamous “Black Thursday” took place, where stock holders went on a panic selling spree. Things then went from bad to worse, stock prices went down 33 percent. People stopped purchasing goods and business investments decreased after the crash. In the fall of 1930, the first of four major waves

Read More
750 Words | 3 Pages

Nishat kazi (Muniya) 11th grade The Great Depression was one of the worst downturn of economy in the history that took place during the 1930s. It had a catastrophic effect in countries on both rich and poor. Though there are a lot of causes behind the Great Depression,the main three causes were-1.Bank failure 2.Stock market crash 3.laissez faire.

Read More
798 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history, which lasted from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Spending began to drop, and it caused declines in employment and some companies began to lay off workers. By 1933, the Great Depression reached its lowest point and millions of Americans were unemployed. The 1920s consisted of dramatic social and political change.

Read More

More about What Caused The Great Depression Dbq Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document