Zaid Mehmood Professor Brucher Paper 2, Draft 2 4 April 2024 A Time of Economic Disparity The Great Depression resulted in sharp economic downfall culminating in families across the country experiencing financial hardships. Farmers faced challenges with the agricultural economy declining, leading to falling crop prices, which ultimately led to many losing their farms, because they were unable to pay their mortgage and debt. Detroit took a severe downturn as the automobile industry collapsed, and thousands of employees lost their jobs. This included immigrants, most notably Mexicans, who faced heightened discrimination and were coerced to return back to Mexico. With growing unrest amongst the working-class, Americans collectively came together …show more content…
Amongst the working-class, the Great Depression had a notable effect on farmers, Ford factory workers, and Mexican immigrants, who experienced food scarcity, unemployment, reduced profits, and housing losses; as the government did not provide relief, the working-class became involved in politics, pressuring the government, which ultimately led to the enactment of the New Deal. The Great Depression caused a sharp decline in the agricultural economy which had profound effects and challenges on farmers. Whole families, including young children, had to work in the fields to survive, pulling three-hundred pounds of hand picked cotton across their shoulders. However, the picked cotton and even corn and wheat had very few buyers due to the decline in demand for agricultural products. In the 1930s, an overproduction crisis caused crop prices to plummet. Wheat prices fell by fifty percent and cotton prices by two-thirds. However, even with this due to decreased demand: “Low prices did not even repay the cost of raising crops, let alone the interest farmers owed on borrowed money” (Rockefeller …show more content…
With the combination of declining crop and land prices, farmers were unable to acquire financial assistance. The entire farm economy approached collapse—farms rapidly were being foreclosed on due to their owners being unable to meet their mortgage and loan payments. Thousands of families abandoned and lost their farms. As the Depression progressed, the demand for cars fell, resulting in wage reductions and mass layoffs of Ford Factory workers, leading to families experiencing financial challenges and an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness clouding Detroit. This economic downturn caused a third of the Ford dealers across the nation to shut down, as people could hardly afford to buy parts for their old cars, let alone buy new ones. As a consequence of decreased profits, Henry Ford was forced to reduce the minimum wage to four dollars and cut employees’ hours. Eventually Ford Motor Company stopped producing cars altogether in August 1931, leading to mass unemployment. This exacerbated the already dire situation in Detroit: “Now a depression within a depression shook Detroit as sixty thousand laid off Ford workers joined a hundred thousand unemployed already on the streets” (Else
The Great Depression was triggered after the stock market crashed in 1929. It was a period of downfall in the economy. This had a great effect on workers, unemployed, and minorities. The amount of unemployed workers increased dramatically. Along with many unemployed workers, it came with 2 long term causes: Many countries were in great debt because of the outcome of World War 1 and banks failed. Hoover got elected because believed in rugged individualism (people are responsible for their successes
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mainly during the 1930’s. The effects of this forced families into homelessness, Men and Women alike out of work, and caused a rippling effect that was felt the world over. This event singlehandedly forced all nations to reevaluate the way that they safeguard against such large scale depressions and how nations like the United States could best control the banks while still keeping a laissez faire economy. This being
Objective 1 (Investigate the impact of the great depression on the united states) A- Major causes for the great depression- There were many events that led to the great depression; four of the most important events were the stock market crash of 1929, the American economic policy with Europe, bank failures and the reduction of US spendings. The stock market crash of 1929 had to have been one of the most important incidents leading up to the great depression. Shortly after the stocks crashed in October
the 1930’s the United States went through a great depression, the reason why the great depression started was a mystery at first. Many scholars debated what had caused it; many predicted that the First World War was the main reason. The gold standard had to be temporarily suspended so that the nation could recover from the cost of Great War. The gold standard served as an exchange rate for countries. A couple countries including the United States put great effort to re-establish the golden standard
The Great Depression is one of the most well known phenomenons to happen in the U.S. The Great Depression was an economic downfall that lasted 10 years. Leading to more than half the banks in the U.S. to fail. The unemployment rate began to raise dangerously high along with the rate of people becoming homeless. People were frantick but the crash was so large that there was no coming up from it anytime soon. On march 4th 1929 Herbert Hoover became president. Once in his presidency he expanded protection
From 1929 to 1940, Americain market economy failed and most Americans cannot attain economic success anymore. An unprecedented depth of economic collapse. More than 13 million Americans lost their jobs. Everything started by the Wall Street's Great Crash of 1929 which caused billions of dollars to vanish into nothingness. All this was due to many factors. The decline in the value of stocks made many people poorer (the wealth effect) and the decline in stock prices affected people’s expectations,
Undoubtedly the Great Depression of 1930 was one of the most ominous phenomenon in the economic and global history. This paper looks at three important aspects of the slump; first, did the crisis occur in the United States or it was a global event; second, if it occurred in the US, what was the reason behind the transmission of the crisis to other countries? At the end, the relation of the crisis and the presence of the Second World War will be delivered and the conclusion of the paper. The orthodox
The Great Depression was an ten-year economic crisis that took place from 1929 to 1939, and proved to be the deepest and longest-lasting economic downfall of the Western industrialized world. It left millions of people unemployed (causing the unemployment rate to skyrocket from 3 percent to nearly 25 percent), raised interest rates, caused divorce rates to raise, lowered birth rates--however, not all people were affected by it. Nearly forty percent of the country did not feel any of the hardships
During 1929 to 1939, the United States suffered from the Great Depression, a severe financial and industrial recession. The depression is defined as a continuous decline of the economy over an extended period of time that often leads to great consequences. The major reasons as to why the Great Depression occurred would be due to speculation within the stock market and and the overproduction of products and crops from WWI. Speculation is the act of quickly purchasing and selling stocks in order to
The Great Depression is known as the most economically catastrophic time period in United States history. During this period, no worker was left unaffected: millions lost their jobs, and people who managed to hold on faced hour and pay cuts. There is debate over what the true cause of the Depression is, but one thing is certain. American political leaders of the 1920s were not responsible for the Great Depression because the primary factors behind it: the ending of World War I, unfair distribution
The Great Depression is an event that occurred in the United States during 1929 to 1939. The United States’ economy dropped and went into an economic recession. During that time, Franklin Roosevelt was elected as the 32nd President of the United States. People elected him in hopes that the economy would recover. In his inaugural address, President Roosevelt said that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” People were afraid during the depression because it affected not just the economy
protected the dollar's value and created immense deflation which helped turning a recession into a decade-long depression. Many people were rubbed out, selling businesses and losing their life savings. That's because when the stock market started falling, brokers suddenly called in their loans. People had to struggle to find enough money to pay for their margins. The subsequent depression destroyed the us economy. The index for industrial production fell by 14.7% between august 1929 to october 1929
history of America, the roaring 20’s Americans were living the dream of prosperity. However when the Great Depression hit later in 1929 the fun was over, tension grew among the nation. Throughout the timeline of 1920-1941 America accustomed extensive episodes that affected the globe and all happened in a short period of time. Beginning with the end of WWI (1918) to the Roaring 20’s, the Great Depression (1929), the beginning of WWII (1939) and the chilling horrors of the Pearl Harbor attack (1941), these
The great depression lasted from 1929-1939. In 1929 the stock market had crashed and the continuous drop of economics had further ensured the beginning of the depression.Over the next several years 4 million americans couldn’t find jobs in 1930 and by 1931 it had rose to 6 million while the country’s industrial production had dropped by half.If you were the lucky few who kept their jobs wages would be decreased immensely.With the lack of jobs, Soup kitchens, breadlines, and homeless people became
unemployment, people struggle to change their lives around during the great depression. During the events leading to the great depression was the aftermath of World War 1 where the United States and other countries around the world had experience economic slowdowns and the start of unemployment. The start of the great depression took place during the stock market crash of 1929 where stock prices starts to plummet. The depression didn’t end until the start of World War 2 in 1939. When Franklin Delano