Great Depression Effects

The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.

The Great Depression started in 1929 and lasted up until 1939. It happens to be the worst economic downturn for the United States and the the rest of the world. It caused companies and corporations to eventually go bankrupt as well as workers to be laid off. Another effect of The Great Depression is that factory production was reduced, and the banks started to shut down. In the lowest point of The Great Depression in 1933 nearly 15 million workers in America were unemployed and one half of the banks started shutting down.

The industrial revolution introduced many new technology and improved our economic system. There have been a large increase in manufacture and machine tools since then. This led to better transportation, steam powered factories, consumer goods, a large workforce, and labour conditions. During the 1870’s , many financial issues had arise in the United States of America and in many European countries. Due to the financial crises that arise , it led to a major depressing era in history that is called the Panic of 1873. In “Standing at Armageddon” written by Nell Irvin Painter, the author discusses the progressive era and the United States economic crisis , as well as, social status during the ninetheeth century. Painter explains on how the high class white people owned most of the United States industry and due to their wealth, they owned fifty-one percent of the properties in America. They were the wealthiest one percent of the United States. There were different layers of wealth and social status which also integrates with race and ethnicity. Those who were wealthy in America weren’t the ones working hard and getting their hands dirty. Many low class were immigrants, women and blacks who worked in factories and were receiving low wages and poor work conditions. The low class owned only 1.2 percent of the properties in America. This caused major issues in the united states because the workers formed

When the American stock market crashed on the infamous Black Tuesday in October 1929, the resulting circumstances were felt worldwide. This crisis resulted in a devastating economic collapse. The ensuing Great Depression was in fact a global event. The world was not immediately engulfed by this wave of economic decline. The timing of economic events varied greatly among nations. Different areas suffered from greater degrees and types of economic disaster. Yet, it spread like a wildfire. Many individuals blamed the US. They believed the Great Depression was largely "exported" by the United States through the economic policies it adopted during the 1930s. Major world nations responded to the economic crisis in various ways, as European powers and the Unites States strove to maintain global peace and the world military disarmament they had begun to establish in the 1920s.

During the 1920s, the U.S. economy was flourishing, with this period being called the Roaring Twenties (“Great Depression”). People were spending money, stocks were high, and people were richer than ever, with the exception of farmers (“Great Depression”). After World War I, there was less of a demand for crops, but other than that, most people were rich (“Great Depression”). People were so confident, they thought this would never end. They were so confident, that Herbert Hoover, who would then become the next president, proclaimed “in 1928 that the United States was close to ‘the final triumph over poverty’ ” (“Great Depression”). We were getting closer to a country of money and happiness by the minute. Truly, this was a time of prosperity.

Few Americans in the first months of 1929 saw any reason to question the strength and stability of the nation's economy. Most agreed with their new president that the booming prosperity of the years just past would not only continue but increase, and that dramatic social progress would follow in its wake. "We in America today," Herbert Hoover had proclaimed in August 1928, "are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us."1

Originally the summer of the 1929’s began as a recession and later became known as The Great Depression in the United States. Little did American know that October 29, 1929 would make history because on this date the stock market crashed. This catastrophe had been fermenting for years. During this time America’s unemployment rate rose to over 20 percent which roughly estimated over 15 million Americans unemployed. In Northern cities and in the South were most African American were highly populated during the 1930’s unemployment rates were incomparably greater for blacks than for whites. Economic circumstances were especially dreadful. It is believed that the one of the causes of the Depression was because of overproduction. Whereas

During the 1930s, America had entered a time of economic need. By the 1950s, the nation had completely evolved and was now one of the most wealthy societies in the world. This drastic changed was influenced by multiple actions carried out by the state, leaders in industry, the labor movement, and the Cold War. Unfortunately, not all Americans benefitted from the shift from economic Depression into the prosperous society that America would become.

TThe status of the economy when Roosevelt obtained presidency was characterized as very flawed and impaired. While President Herbert Hoover had relentlessly tried to mend the broken economy after the stock market crash of 1929 by establishing “Hoovervilles” and spending vast amounts of government money, the economy was still extremely damaged and broken.

Many people speculate that the stock market crash of 1929 was the main cause of The Great Depression. In fact, The Great Depression was caused by a series of factors, and the effects of the depression were felt for many years after the stock market crash of 1929. By looking at the stock market crash of 1929, bank failures, reduction of purchasing, American economic policy with Europe, and drought conditions, it becomes apparent that The Great Depression was caused by more than just the stock market crash. The effects were detrimental beyond the financial crisis experienced during this time period.

“Shrunken perhaps by the vicissitudes and exigencies of the times, Broadway presented itself admirably throughout the Thirties. It not only managed to preserve the best, but also nurtured and expanded them. At the brink of the new decade, Broadway stood smaller but brighter”

The decaying state of the American economy and the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s brought about the necessity for the United States to reconsider its attitudes and examine the long term effects of its policies concerning wide-scale socioeconomic problems that were constantly growing bigger. The Great Depression led to the creation of many new and innovative government policies and programs, along with revisions to older economic systems. However, these cost the government billions of dollars in a country that had consistently been stretching the gap between the rich and poor. This continued as the Great Depression began to change everything people had grown old knowing,

Franklin D. Roosevelt did a lot of things for America in his time: led them to a victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, led the war alliance between Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, and he also helped form the United Nations by a post-war peace organization. But most importantly, Roosevelt pulled the United States out of the Great Depression. He helped us to regain our confidence as a country. The Great Depression was a very devastating time for America. People lost their jobs, homes, and money. However, FDR created a New Deal to get those things back. Without the guidance of President Roosevelt during the Great Depression, Americans would have never hoped of gaining their economic strength again.

After World War I, countries across the world went into a hardship. Great famine and inflation took place. Money was hardly worth anything. Prices went up, but the value of money went down. People were losing jobs faster than ever before and the number of homeless people increased dramatically. The world was now going into one of the hardest times that it has ever seen. This was The Great Depression . The Great Depression basically caused a lot of difficult consequences in the world, (money, business, and jobs). The Great Depression was one of the biggest hardships ever. It ain't called The Great Depression for nothing.

It’s time for a change in the United States. America needs to restore its ideals to what they once were back in the 20th century-- citizens working hard to make a living, trying to fulfil the “American Dream.” Unfortunately, this sense of a model life deteriorated a bit after the Great Depression hit, which left multitudes of people impoverished. President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched an attack on this economic hardship,