Life In The 1930s Essay

People Have Never Been more Depressed
People did not think that being greedy would cause such pain, but nevertheless it caused more pain and suffering then the world knew was possible. When the Stock market crashed it was the beginning of all economic concerns in the 1930’s. This became a brutal time for everyone. Several tragedies occurred in the economy during the 1930’s including many people losing their jobs and becoming unemployed, people losing their homes and being unable to own land, and people having to wait in the Soup Kitchen line almost all day for food.
During the Great Depression many people lost their jobs and were unemployed. The Depression was a huge part of unemployment: “When the Great Depression reached its nadir, some

13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed” (history.com). It was not just a couple hundred people that were impacted; it was millions upon millions of people that lost their jobs. This then caused the unemployment rate to skyrocket: “25 percent of all workers and 37 percent of nonfarm workers were completely out of work” (econlib.org). The percentages of unemployment kept on rising and getting worse.
In the 1930’s many people lost their homes and were unable to own land. Farmers were really impacted: “Farm families who could not meet mortgage payments saw their homes and farms auctioned off in foreclosure proceedings” (galegroup.com). All these people had to stand by and watch as their home and land was being taken away from them. When the Stock Market crashed “people who had borrowed money to buy stocks lost everything they owned, including businesses, homes, cars, and even clothes” (aprilsmith.org). Being in this state of poverty was frowned upon in many areas. This drove people to do drastic things such as suicide.
When people were at their lowest point, some just could not take the humiliation of being in poverty so they decided to end their life instead of dealing with the pressure. Not only some but “many sank into despair and shame after they could not find jobs. The suicide rates increased from 14 to 17 per 100,000” (gwu.edu). This shows that the economic concerns in the 1930’s were not minor but severe. There was one particular suicide that was in the headlines in the newspaper; it was of J. J. Riordan: “On Friday, November 8, Riordan went to his bank, took a pistol from a teller’s cage, went home and shot himself” (The Great Crash 131). Some people saw this as reacting appropriately to the situation they all were in and decided to follow in Riordan’s footsteps, like people jumping off bridges or pouring gasoline on themselves and lighting themselves on fire.
Lastly many people had to wait in the Soup Kitchen line all day for food.

For multitudes of people “along with breadlines, soup kitchens became a daily part of the life of millions” (Start With Me 8). When people are used to this life style that is when it starts to get very sad, because people had become so accustom to living in poverty that it became normal. So many people went to soup kitchens that:
Women volunteered to work in the soup kitchens that served their communities, improvising cheap recipes for soups that made use of any available local products. Vegetables, boiled together in water, made up the bulk of the soups and stews that were served. As the numbers of people arriving at the kitchens increased more water had to be added to the stews and their nutrition value declined. The soups and stews were cooked in large pots (american-historama.org).
No one was getting the nutrients needed to survive and stay healthy.
In the 1930’s unemployment and job loss were on the up rise, also people lost their homes and land, lastly people waited in soup lines for food. Although many people blamed Herbert Hoover for the cause of the Great Depression, it was not just solely him. We all contributed to this horrible downfall, by the greed and selfishness we all have inside us. There is no way to take back what has already happened but it should be a lesson learned to all of

us.