The average income of the American family dropped 40 percent from 1929 to 1932. Income fell from $2,300 to $1,500 per year. People lost their jobs, struggled to provide for their families, and subsequently business failed. Just as people were optimistic about the overall state of America it took a turn for the worst. The great depression hit in the fall of 1929. From this point people persevered and some didn't through ten years of an unstable economy. An unstable economy is an understatement, basically the whole economy crashed. The main reason the depression occurred was due to speculation and installment buying, banking system failure, and income maldistribution. One of the main reasons the great depression occurred was due to a large amount …show more content…
According to document I bosses had to fire a lot of their workers because he/she did not have enough money to pay every worker. The situation started in the first place due to income maldistribution. Bosses of factories had limited workers which meant people had to work longer hours in order to finish the amount of work needed. This gave a lot of pressure on fewer people than before to finish the same amount of work with more people. Sometimes strikes occurred in mills over the conditions. People were working so much it affected their health this system of stretched hours for little people let unemployment continue. Unemployment is a significant part of the great depression. According to document K 60 percent of people lived under the poverty line during the depression. Part of the reason for all the poverty was because there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Most people during this era needed help from the top percentage of wealthy people but they didn't receive help due to income maldistribution. If this problem were to be fixed then the percentage of people below the poverty line would be a lot