The Consequences Of The Great Depression

During the 1930’s, Americans were going through what was known as the Great Depression. Once the stock market crashed after investors lost security and confidence so in October 1929, the economy fell. Since the economy was great during the 1920’s, people were not prepared for the economic hardship. Many people had no savings so they could not deal with the loss of money. They lost their jobs and homes and were impacted psychologically and physically. Not only did they have to deal with the loss of money, they had to deal with one of the greatest natural disasters (America: The Story of Us, 2010). Families ended up being extremely affected by the Great Depression.

After the stock market crash and the fall of the economy, many people lost their jobs and had to deal with unemployment. About 1.5 million people became unemployed. More than half the population, eighty percent in many states, had no savings, people lost almost everything (America: The Story of Us, 2010). Since they lost their properties they ended up moving into shanty towns where they had to wait in bread lines to obtain even the smallest amount of food to support themselves because food and basic necessities were becoming difficult to get. Unemployment led to nuclear families

Children and teens were kicked out by their guardians, forcing them to get jobs and take care of themselves because their families could not provide them with enough food to survive. Then before the old man could start giving any more hints, I scrams (Minehan, p.37-38). They were forced to make a living on their own and occasionally had to steal in order to survive but some tried to avoid that. While the necessities of life are forcing many young tramps to beg and steal or to starve, many clever ones are doing neither (Minehan, p.129-131). Families were no longer families because people were individually trying to survive through such a harsh