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

being destroyed because there was not enough money to support everyone.
Children, teens and families suffered the consequences of the Great Depression.

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

time.
Apart from suffering economically people had to deal with one of the biggest natural disasters in history, the dust bowl. This not only affected families living in the area, it also drastically affected farmers, making them lose about 26 million which impacted them a lot (America: The Story of Us, 2010). The people that left the area were called migrants. There were around 4 million people that left west to find a better life. This caused more competition for jobs, there were barely enough jobs since the fall of economy now it was even worse because more people wanted to work (America: The Story of Us, 2010).
Since there were many problems in the United States, presidents like Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt had to try to help people get through the depression. Herbert hoover depended on the people to work it out themselves he believed in rugged individualism. Hoover believed that American people would help each other, that member of communities would fix their own problems (Oxford, 2015, p. 131). Roosevelt on the other hand created the new deal which had many programs in order to help the people get through the Great Depression. That is why Roosevelt was popular among the people of America.
Even though the people of the United States had to deal with so much during the Great Depression, losing family, jobs, and homes, they had each other and their presidents to help. Even though the economy eventually got better, people were physically and psychologically scared. Families were incomplete because of starvation and people had to find ways to get back on their feet after losing everything. The Great Depression really affected the lives of so many people. It proved that the 1930’s was a tough time for America.