In 1929, the U.S. was hit with the worst economic crisis in the history of the country, the Great Depression. The Great Depression left millions of people unemployed and cost millions their life's savings. The Depression lasted for ten long years for the American people. Since the Great Depression ended, people have studied it, trying to figure out what happened that started it all. The problem was, in fact, the poor economic habits of the people at the time, such as speculation, income maldistribution, and overproduction. The Great Depression was caused by speculation and installment buying, income maldistribution, and overproduction because each of these factors combined made the economy worse before and after the stock market crash, which led to The Great Depression. Speculation and installment buying helped caused The Great Depression because people were buying so much stuff on credit, when …show more content…
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). Nobody under the poverty line could afford to buy things with regular money or on credit, therefore products that hadn’t been sold began piling
The context of the great depression is world war 1 the great world was fought in europe leaving the us economy untouched this allowed the u.s to become a trading giant as they began to mass produce everything. After evaluating and weighing the evidence installment buying and the stock market crash were the major causes of the great depression. Before the great depression having debt was no longer shameful because of this people kept buying and buying, 3 out of 4 radios were on installment plans and 60 percent of automobiles and furniture were also on plans. They were buying faster than their income was expanding. As time went on it was only a matter of time before purchases would slow down, with these purchases slowing down the cutback slapped the whole economy (doc 6).
Many lost their jobs. Businesses were shutting down, Farmers were not able to grow their produce. Although there were several factors that came together to cause the Great Depression, the three main causes were buying on credit, stock market crash, and overproduction. Buying on credit helped cause the Great Depression because many Americans would buy goods that they cannot afford off installment buying. Installment buying is when you purchase a item with payments.
Today, most average Americans are able to eat out, stroll the mall, purchase decent clothing, or even buy a new phone, but imagine living in the 1930’s where eating a good meal was only fortunate for some. There was an era longing eleven years of dark days, hungry evenings, bankruptcy, and literal depression where America suffered its worst set back of its history. In a complicated time in which it would not matter if you were black or white, male, female or even the richest of them all. The dreaded country collapsed between the years 1929-1940 for several reasons. So what is it that caused this long economic tragedy?
Throughout the many years of the Great Depression, the American economy plummeted greatly because of ongoing issues throughout the United States. The American market, and essentially continuously buying, are what keeps an economy in any country moving. The points at issue which allowed the economy to go down consist of three major factors. All three of these aspects took a great amount of citizens down along with all of their profits. Families, businesses, and employees struggled to stay standing during this time period.
The Great Depression was a roughly 10-year period in the early twentieth century that was shaped by the United States’ national economic crisis, but affected the global economy, as well. It began in 1929, when the stock market first crashed and stock prices began to fall, but only 2% of Americans owned stock and were affected at this time. (1:48) It wasn’t until tens of thousands of people began to withdraw money from banks and hundreds closed across the country, leaving 28 states bank-less (5:32) that the population truly began to suffer. Unemployment rates skyrocket and more and more people begin to go bankrupt, with 34 million Americans left with no source of income by 1932.
Document 9, has observed that the chart "U.S Family Income Distribution (1929)," which was the year when the Great Depression starts shows the annual income and the percentage of Ameican Families Earning this Income. If it was over $10,000 the percentage overall was 40% and below it such as $2,000 there was 60% of families lived in or below poverty. The Great Depression hurt all income brackets not just the poor. Indeed, in 1929 the wealthiest 5% of the U.S. received about 33% of income. Furthermore, in document 11, it has been proven the "The Stumbling Block" cartoon has how the farm industry was affected which led to over-production which was the problem.
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
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.
America had experienced other depressions or “panics,” but none were like the Great Depression. The Great Depression began on October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, with the stock market crashing. Most people believe that the cause of the Great Depression was the stock market crashing. Although that is what triggered the Great Depression there were many underlying causes that lead up to the stock market crashing. Some of the underlying causes include under-consumption/over-production, uneven distribution of wealth, loose banking and corporate regulations, tariffs policies, and the stock market.
Industrial production dropped by half, breadlines, soup kitchens, and the homeless shelters became popular in America’s town and cities. In Document six, it explains how consumers have to reduce purchases and cut back on spending habits and how farmers struggled not being able to afford to harvest their crops( William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932, 1958). Also in Document seven, and eight it states that, people and families have to stretch and makes ends meet on what they have and also finding a way to make things cheaper (Paul Blanshard, “How to Live on Forty-six Cents a Day,” The Nation, 1929/ Fortune, February
During the 20s, which became known at the Roaring 20s, American society was at an all time high and people were prospering as the nation’s wealth almost doubled and American was sent into the modern, consumer age. However following almost directly after the Roaring 20s, America entered a period of economic failure, also known as the Great Depression. During this period, the U.S faced economic, social, and political turmoil. The government and various individuals quickly sought after solutions to address the problems facing America during this time. Herbert Hoover, who was President at the start of the Depression, and his many reforms intended to revitalize the economy and create more jobs but would fail and his belief in rugged individualism
There were a variety of causes that caused the Great Depression, but the main cause that started it was a decrease in spending. This led to production decrease because manufacturers and merchandisers did not want to have unused items just sitting on the shelves. In October of 1929 the stock market crashed. The United States stock prices had reached levels that could not be justified by sensible predictions of future earnings. The results of this were catastrophic.
The Great Depression of 1929 was one of America’s most influential downfalls that crippled society for years. The depression caused many years of failure and poverty for almost all of society. The government’s role during these times was crucial and critical for turning around the economy. The depression had a major effect on government’s power and involvement with the people and states. The government was less involved before the depression.
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.
The first cause of Great Depression was bank failure. It was one of the main causes of the Great Depression. Throughout the 1930s over 9000 banks failed. In 1920s there were a lot of banks.