Consumer Culture And The Great Depression

The Great Depression was a time when unemployment rates increased, people lost their life saving, and banks went on a crisis. The primary reason why this happened is because of consumer culture. Borrowing money was easier than ever in the 1920s. Buyers could easily pack a small percent of the stock price and borrow the rest from a broker. Consumers were buying goods at a rate higher than their income was expanding (6). However, as the market was rising, stockers were happy to lend money to anyone. The methods used to purchase items caused the stock market to collapse. Borrowing money became risky when starting a business because you could only hope for profit. However, purchasing on layway and going into debt was becoming acceptable (6). This encouraged the continuation of these methods which lead to something greater. Consumer culture occurring in the 1920s is the primary reason why the Great Depression occurred. Consumers were using purchasing methods such as buying on the margin and layaway which caused the stock market to crash in the 30s.

They way that people were buying stocks caused the depression in the 30s. It used to be that people would

Business were successful, products were being made that people couldn't wait to buy, and the stock prices were continuously was rising. Investors were putting money into stocks and hoped that they would earn profit from the rising stock prices (5). So the connection of businesses selling and consumers buying was that consumers just wanted to buy on credit and businesses just hoped for profit. The eager to shop and sell for economic purposes lead to the family income to shift dramatically. Suddenly, in 1929, 2% of families were earning $10,000 or more annually while 42% of families were earning $1,500 annually. The average income to meet basic needs was $2,000. This means that about 50% of the American family population were living in poverty