The Collapse Of The United States During The Great Depression

The Great Depression, a world-wide crisis of economic loss and failures, more specifically in the United States. The time period started from the year 1930 to 1940 with Herbert Hoover as president. During this time, stock markets were crashing, businesses were closing as well as banks. Most of the American population were homeless, and people were starving and poor from unemployment. There was a need for sources like electricity as well as the need for jobs to change unemployment rates (Smiley, 2008). President Hoover did not help citizens and thought the best was done until great change occurred. Many people thought the nation was ‘no longer a powerful nation’ because of this great depression time, but new plans and actions were taken into place later on to help the economy and the people. One major action that helped the economy and the people prosper up again was the building of the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam, named after President Hoover, helped by providing electricity, helped provide jobs for the people, and provided assurance to signify that the United States was really a
great nation in this depressive time.
The Great depression came across the United States in a tremendous downfall leading to unemployment rates plunging down as well as businesses closing. People were losing their homes and were unable to support their families. Eventually, people lived in Hoovervilles and scarcely had enough to feed on. With the building of the Hoover Dam in place, this gave opportunities for people to start working again which led to employment rates increasing (Young, 2010, p.71). The Hoover Dam provided jobs such as ordering the supplies, shipping, making cement, designing, constructing, and many more positions. Since the Hoover Dam is enormous for the different purposes it provides, thousands and thousands of workers were needed for the construction of it. Not only has the Hoover Dam provided jobs, companies and businesses are opening back up again for the supplies and materials needed for the dam. Production went up and more workers were needed for the factories leaving job openings. As you can see from the Hoover Dam’s construction, it has lead to help with the unemployment rate as well as business and factory production.
In addition to providing jobs for the unemployment, the Hoover Dam provided a source of electricity transitioning the United States to become more industrialized. The Hoover Dam has been providing cheap, affordable, and dependable electricity for millions for over 77 years and is still current today as a main source (Kuckro, 2014). The Hoover Dam produces energy for electricity by water power and turbines. The water used is from the Colorado River. There is a positive aspect to hydropower being renewable as well as not harming the environment with gas emissions. The dam was also a good source to irrigate farmland of acres and control the water dangers such as floods. As to electricity being provided, this helped to heat homes in the winter, air condition homes in the summer, keep power for the lights running, and helped for appliances to run such as the stove.
Lastly, the Hoover Dam helped to inspire people through this great depressive time.
The dam is very huge in size and supplies millions of people with a source of power. The Hoover Dam is tall as a 60 foot story building and holds an enormous size of water. For one purpose that out stood all other purposes of the dam was that the building of the dam symbolized America’s amazingly industry effort, limits, and workers of the 1930’s (“The Greatest Dam in the World,” 2011). The engineering ability inspired people. There are still visitors today of this 21st century to see the beautiful construction. During this time of the Great Depression, people lost hopes/luck and inspiration because of the great number of unemployment, homelessness and poverty. Building something big and great such as this dam helped to inspire people that America could come back and prosper during a weak and down
time.
Although the Hoover Dam was a great and an inspirational construction, the dam also had its’ encounters. The Hoover Dam costed to actually be built and workers had to be paid in addition to the cost of the dam It also costed to buy supplies and materials for the construction. The dam could have also taken lives putting workers at risk. Lastly, the dam was named after President Hoover after all, in which many did not favor him as president and felt as if he didn’t help much during the depressive time. This was only because President Hoover believed in the philosophy of ‘Rugged Individualism’ and also thought it was unconstitutional to help.
In conclusion, the Hoover Dam turned out to be very significant and stands to be an inspirational work of the 19030’s. The dam helped the American society prosper up again during the Great Depression. The dam helped to provide jobs for the unemployment as well as helping businesses back up again, helped to provide electricity for millions, and helped to provide inspiration to people about America being a great country during a depressive time.