The Great Depression

This report is about the economic hard time of the 1930’s. The great depression is a time when the people of the United States and the government's spending was out of control. You’ll learn that the great depression didn’t just happen over night but accumulated over a period of time.

It’s a common misconception that the stock market crash in October 1929 was called by the Great Depression. They are closely related but both are result of the modern economy. People were spending more money than they made. Banks played a role in the Great Depression because banks were willing to loan money to people who could not pay the loan back. Then the US is coming out of the roaring twenties and people were living good, plus the US is coming out of the WWI and time were good.

The whole country is focused on getting rich quick enjoying the new fad of life, invention and new ideas. The old way of doing things was being replaced by the city-oriented Jazz Age. An example of this influence is the wearing of short skirts by women, makeup, smoking and drinking.

People also developed self-centered attitudes that helped during the roaring twenties but was beging to effect the economy. Modern industry had the ability to produce vast quaunties of product, but this created a huge problem with because the demand of these good was beginning to decline and there was a surplus of goods that merchants had to sell without profits.

There was a one economic problem and that is that income was not distributed evenly to everyone. The amount of money going to the wealthiest was getting larger as the decade proceeded. To factors caused this problem. First the company showed outstanding gain in productivity, but the workers got received a small percentage of the profit. At the same time the there was a tax cut to the rich but for lower income had no change and worker production was increased by 32 percent but workers wages only grew by 8 percents. Company profits grew by 65 percent in the same period of time and the government let the rich keep more of the profits. The Revenue Act of 1926 cut the taxes of people who made a million or more by two thirds.

As a result of the trend the top 0.1 percent of A...

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...going to be the present. So Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election and now was president. Within days of inauguration Roosevelt called congress into special session so that he could get emergency legislation passed to help the country

The first piece of legislation was to declare a bank holiday so that the govererment could go in and reform the banking. Then there was the Agriculture Adjustment of 1933 Act, which the government pays the farmers to not grow surplus crops. Then the National Industrial Recovery Act which helped to regulate the completion the industries. The Tennessee Valley Authority was created to give power to everyone to improve living condition.

END OF THE DEPRESSION

The depression didn’t end over night but with the new acts in place the economy began to adjust and the country started to reform itself. Then WWII started and the US started to build warship and expanding the military. Cause of this decision the unemployment rate declined rapidly. When the war started in 1941 the whole economy came together to support the war. Then a shortage of workers was the problem instead not enough jobs.