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Unemployment during the great depression research essay
Economic effects of the great depression
Economic effects of the great depression
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Unemployment was a major problem during the time of the Great Depression. Soon after the stock market crashed unemployment had begun to rise rapidly. With the crash of the stock market it sent wall street into a frenzy and took out the vast majority of its investors. Over the course of time consumer spending dropped as well as investments. This caused an extreme decline in what the industries put out, therefore, causing them to lay off many of their workers, which in return lead to high unemployment.
At the peak of the great depression millions of people lost their jobs. With no jobs people were unable to pay off their loans and credit at the banks and soon nearly half of all banks in America shut down and people lost everything that they
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had. No work meant no money, and no money meant that men could not provide for their families, which led millions of American people to compete against each other for scraps just to get by. http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression Shantytowns, also known as Hooverville’s, emerged and filled up the outskirts of cities all over the country.
These Hoovervilles were homes to many homeless American families that had lost everything they had due to the depression. They were called Hoovervilles after the former president, Herbert Hoover, who they had blamed for the economic downfall. These shacks were built by using whatever scraps people could get their hands on in order to provide them with shelter.
Some Hoovervilles were small and housed hundreds of people while others were quite large and housed thousands of people. Most Hoovervilles were ran informally and were often set up along rivers for the simple convenience of having a water source that was accessible. However, they were very unclean and posed as a great health hazard to the many people that lived there. Therefore, local health agencies had often tried to close Hoovervilles in hopes that the unsanitariness wouldn’t spread throughout the towns. http://carolyngreatdepression.weebly.com/hoovervilles.html
Soup kitchens and bread lines could be found in any city and were often ran outside, in churches, cafeterias, and even service centers. Charitable organizations first established these soup kitchens and bread lines. Eventually the state and federal governments began to operate them. They were made in order to help feed the thousands of homeless people who had no money to afford their next
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meal. These soup kitchens and breadlines consisted of a single file line of individuals that would stand outside of a charity and wait for the free food that the charities had to offer them, such as bread and soup. The main reason that these charities chose to feed everyone with the soup was because if they were running out all they had to do was add water to make more, so they could feed all the men, women, and young children that were starving. There were so many homeless people at this time that breadlines went on for blocks, filled with so many helpless American citizens struggling to just get through another day. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1660.html Competition led to a great deal of discrimination during the Great Depression.
Everyone was competing against one another in order to survive and provide for their families. Women were one of the groups of people that were discriminated against. During this era many women did not work because they stayed at home to look after their children and their household while the men went and worked. However, there were some women that were working at this time and when the great depression hit it was easier for women to keep their jobs or get jobs than compared to men because most of the industries that had shut down were employed by
men. With men out of a job and no money to provide for their families it often resulted in many of them leaving their families behind. Therefore, it was up to women to have to find jobs in order to provide for themselves and their children. Although women could find jobs such as sewing and producing goods from home their wages were still very low and that made it extremely hard to support and provide for their families. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/industry/12.htm
During the beginning of the Great Depression, 9000 banks were closed, ending nine million savings accounts. This lead to the closing of eighty-six thousand businesses, a European depression, an overproduction of food, and a lowering of prices. It also led to more people going hungry, more homeless people, and much lower job wages. There was a 28% increase in the amount of homeless people from 1929 to 1933. And in the midst of the beginning of the Great Depression, President Hoover did nothing to improve the condition of the nation.
President Herbert Hoover was the conservative Republican president of America when the Great Depression occurred, and was given the burden of rebuilding the economy. He believed the federal government should not intervene, and instead believed that helping the needy was the obligation of private organizations and donors, whom he pressured. In addition, Hoover granted loans to big businesses, hoping that the money would “trickle down” and that more employees would be hired.
In America the Great Depression hit hard especially in the 1930’s. People lost their jobs and then their homes. When the depression hit everyone blamed President Hoover for all of the homelessness. Hoovervilles are an important part of history; some important things about hoovervilles are how they started and who it involved.
The great depression was a very sad and hard time. This was a time where people had little money, no available jobs and just had a hard time with everything. Many people had nd any way to make money whether it was cutting kid’s hair in neighborhood, picking fruit, selling iron cords house to house or even painting a house for 5 dollars. Even though this was a very hard time some people still had hope that things would get better. This was a really bad time until Franklin Roosevelt who was for the government supporting the Americans and not the other way around became president.
The Great Depression, beginning in the last few months of 1929, impacted the vast majority of people nationwide and worldwide. With millions of Americans unemployed and many in danger of losing their homes, they could no longer support their families. Children, if they were lucky, wore torn up ragged clothing to school and those who were not lucky remained without clothes. The food supply was scarce, and bread was the most that families could afford. Households would receive very limited rations of food, or small amounts of money to buy food.
Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas were all victims. They suffered for hours on end of dust blowing through the air into their eyes, mouths and noses. Life could not survive the dustbowl either. Trees were once planted in hopes of collecting the dust, but instead the trees sucked all the water out of the ground. Making the dust even worse. Many tried to leave and find land elsewhere but nobody wanted them there because of low amounts of money.
There was a Great Depression in the 1930's. During this time President Hoover was trying to fight against unemployment. The percentage of unemployed people rose 25 percent during this time. With unemployment continuing to rise, President Hoover urged congress to provide up to 150 billion dollars for public works to create jobs.
Hoovervilles were small towns that were built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were built with any scrap material that they could find. Hooverville houses were very small and lacked a lot. An entire family would live in one small hut or tent. Most Hoovervilles were next to soup kitchens to get food.
Foreclosure was a big problem during the Great Depression. People who were not working could not pay their mortgage and then were evicted from their homes.
At the start of the Depression, many letters (mostly discouraging) were sent to President Hoover. These letters came primarily from well-to-do citizens, however some leftist workers’ letters found their way in as well. The well-to-do citizens agreed that the ultimate cause of the lower classes’ depression was their laziness and incompetence. On top of that, these well-to-do citizens thanked Hoover, probably because their money had gone unscathed (McElvaine, 38). Some opinions weren’t as favorable for the Hoover administration, however. Some people believed that “engineers may be intelligent but poor presidents” (pp. 43). Finally, the leftist parties did not appreciate the endeavors of the Hoover presiden...
The Great Depression was felt worldwide, in some countries more than others. During this time, many Americans had to live in poor conditions. In the United States, 25 percent of the workers and 37 percent of all nonfarm workers lost their jobs (Smiley 1). Unemployment rates had increased to 24.9 percent during 1933 (Shmoop 1). Unable to pay mortgages, many families lost their homes.
Depression was not just simply economic crisis. It was also the cultural and political crisis. People were very desperate and they looked for different solutions. The great depression was not just a period of high unemployment but also, unbearable poverty of breadlines and apple peddlers, increase of prostitutes for money.
mark. This staggering figure gave birth to a new form of public assistance; Bread lines. Men and
The main people living in the Hoovervilles were middle to lower class citizens and made up about 25% of the workforce. People in Hoovervilles acted like rats, living clumped together and fighting for scraps of food to feed their families. Some families used public charities, and even begged, for food. "Hooverville residents had nowhere else to go, and public sympathy, for the most part, was with them." (History "Hoovervilles"). Very few people went to barber shops or to dental offices because they had no money to pay for anything. One of the reasons the suicide rate went up dramatically during that time was because of the poor conditions. Citizens of these poor Hoovervilles were not limited to out-of-work ordinary people, but also included military
When the stock market started failing, many factories closed production of all types of goods. Businesses and banks started closing down and farmers fell into bankruptcy. Many people lose everything, their jobs, their savings, and their homes. More than thirteen million people are unemployed. The Great Depression caused major political changes.