Was The Great Depression Good Or Bad

The Great Depression-how bad did it get?

The Great Depression presented the people of the United States of America Trial upon trial in almost every aspect of life. The Great Depression, while getting its name from the economic cycle, was truly a depression in every sense of the word. Times were tough for almost every single family if not worse. This was exceptionally difficult after the prosperous 20’s that was surely an economic expansion and then boom. The final months of the 1920s were spent in rapid contraction and recession that morphed into a true and well great depression. The dramatic catalyst of The Great Depression was the stock market crash of 1929. This caused an enormous amount of panic amongst the general population as it had been very
common for people to invest in stocks and even take large loans to do so. Once the stock market turned, investors could not pay their loans back to banks which had a great part in many bank closures. Even if a family had been financially secure and had a good amount saved up and stored in the bank, a banks closure meant their lifesavings were down the drain. As many banks closed their doors, people fearfully withdrew their money from safe banks which in turn caused many more closures. In the year 1933, over 4000 banks went bankrupt! The American GNP was cut in half between 1929 and 1933. Consumption declined by 18% and over 100,000 businesses failed. With these failed businesses came a terrifying unemployment rate. In 1928, unemployment was at 3%. In five years that number became 25% in 1933. Of course, when a family has no source of income it is not surprising they are not spending money in the community. This created a deadly whirlpool. The less people earned, the less they spent and the more businesses closed so more people lost their jobs. Henry Ford laid off 75,000 workers in one sitting. As people lost their jobs they also lost their homes. In many cities “Hooverville” appeared. These makeshift cities were without clean water. The living conditions were absolutely abysmal. Many individuals hoped that other areas of the county could present more opportunities and so hopped on trains that crisscrossed along the country. Over 250,000 teens were estimated to have train hopped. Simultaneously, a massive drought swept through the mid-section of the nation.
Mother Nature also seemed to be feeling the depression. The Manifest Destiny mantra that had taken over the hearts of many Americans and driven them to move west to make their livelihoods through farming, backfired as the Dust Bowl settled over the nation’s middle. Thousands of farms were decimated and their owners fled west to California in hope s of finding a new job. These “oakies” flooded the western state with their furniture and worldly possessions only to be homeless and jobless. One such person was captured famously with three of her children. Migrant Mother the photograph taken by Dorthea Lange is perhaps the most recognized symbol of the 30s. Although the woman is only 32 years of age, her face is lined with stress and worry. The look in her eyes is forever sorrowful and desperate. Woody Guthrie sang of the tragedies and hardships of the time. His lyrics include the loss of all his possessions and family members. Although The Great Depression only lasted a decade, the American People were forever affected by it. A generation developed a strong fear of banks, a very strong work value and the tendency to squirrel their
possessions. The Decade is perhaps one of the most trying in the History of America.