How Did Poverty Affect The Economy Of The 1930s

The 1930s was an era of the American culture that was covered in darkness. The economy was in shambles. Unemployment was at an unprecedented high and poverty ran rampant throughout all races and social classes. With many Americans investing all of their finances into the stock market, its crash led to the crushing of people’s livelihoods. Wall Street was the center of life of the country and with it crippled, all other aspects of life fell apart consequently. Unemployment reached over 25% and there was no work to be found. Almost no money flowing in and in some cases “there were whole towns whose people had not a cent of income.” Even people who upper class citizens, who were at the top of society, fell all the way into poverty. Farmers
Across the country, protests were a common sight. World War One veterans or“soldiers of misfortune”, marched on Washington to demand their soldier pay earlier. President Hoover refused and sent in soldiers to remove the mob that was summarized as being the “ ragged hordes blocked traffic, clung like swarming bees to the steps of the Capitol.” Out West, poor farmers refused to continued the trend until their demands were met. It spread all across the Midwest until “all the roads leading to Sioux City were picketed.” The Great Depression was an event that no one knew what to do with. President Hoover tried to do nothing and let the economy right itself. His predecessors, FDR, attempted to create government programs to bring the sinking economy back to floating again. He wanted to stop seeing new pictures each day of hundreds waiting in line to get a small meal at a soup kitchen. Seeing prominent young “college men are shoveling sand, checking freight cars, working in filling stations.” He then implemented his New Deal. It was full of programs specifically designed to relieve, recover, and reform. Even with all his effort, America did not recover financially until the start of World War