Over 15 million Americans became jobless during the great depression and many were left homeless because they could not afford to keep the payments of the houses they had rented out. Some people were left with almost nothing and committed suicide because of this. The great depression really was a depressing time for most Americans. The depression caused people to become migrant workers, they had to leave home to find work. Families were split up and many men and women became very lonely.
Americans in this class in the south were barely able to survive. In fact, some people were so poor that they had to wait for hours in bread lines and at soup kitchens just to get a meal. Farmers in the south especially had many economic problems during the 1930s. Many farmers had to relocate to other states to find work elsewhere. Most of them became part of the lower class during the depression because they were not able to make any money.
I. L. M. Ida Moore writes one such document under the title “Bill Branch's Works Progress Administration Life History.” This document reviles how people were feeling desperate and helpless. The main informant in this document is Bill Branch who lost his job because of the economic depression. Expressing his desperation and disappointment in the relief programs government put in place he said, “They Don’t seem to be anyone around here to take any interest to us,….We just live here some of us half starving and the folks outside don’t seem to care” (Moore,1983). This was story of most households at the time. People wondered around without jobs and solely dependent on insufficient assistance from the government.
On top of these harsh conditions, the sanitation system in these tenements were extremely poor which caused the widespread of diseases, such as cholera. Although their housing condition was bad, it paled in comparison with the working condition in the factories. The working class was composed of farmers who abandoned their rural lifestyles for the industrial cities and job opportunities. Comparing to their previous lifestyle, life in factories was harsh and the workers had to work up to sixteen hours for six or seven days a week with low wages. The workers only got breaks whenever the factory owners permit them and most of the factory owners were Social Darwinism or Rugged Individualism who didn’t care about their workers.
A banking crisis then swept across America, as the confidence of the American public fell. In 1929, 659 banks failed due to unpaid loans. As a result people stopped trusting banks and withdrew their savings. This in turn led to more banks failing. People in agriculture were hardest hit by the Depression because the 1920’s had not been kind to them anyway.
There was also severe drought and American economic policy with Europe was strict which made businesses to fall. These things added to the great depression and how severe it became because people and the earth was not cooperating. The people living in the Great Depression had many hardships and were struggling each and every day just to find money to buy food. People would starve and there was a widespread of hunger, poverty, and unemployment. When the stocks crashed the unemployment rate went from 9% all the way up to 25%.
Workers Conditions in 19th Century Europe What would it be like to be forced to work long hours for little pay? What feelings would you have after being treated horribly at your workplace? Many workers had to face hardship while working in the factories of 19th century Europe. This was caused by careless government and factory owners. The workers had terrible lives because of low wages and inability to advance in social class.
The First Industrial Revolution changed agriculture customs and the Second Industrial Revolution caused changes in production techniques, but both helped the United States industrialize and become the most successful country in the world. During the First Industrialization Revolution, there were extreme changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation. Industrialization began in Britain because of the surplus of raw materials, making it one of the most dominant countries in machinery. Before the Civil War, most people were not wage owners because they either worked on agriculture or in small single-owner crafts. The Industrial Revolution began with the invention of the steam engine in Britain in 1793 by James Watt, which was used to minerals from mines.
It put millions of people out of work, and made people homeless and hungry. Food and job lines were nearly endless in the cities. The Great Depression was a horrible time for most of Americans. Many people lost their jobs and a lot of businesses closed. This job loss forced many Americans to becoming migrant workers.
suicide rose as a result of debts and the pressures being put on people who couldnt handle it. ill health rose as a result of poor hygene and living conditions. Elderly people were robbed of pensions and svaings and so had nothing to live for anymore. Women before the depression had begun getting involved in the stock market. so during the depression they lost money like the men did.