What Caused The Great Depression Essay

The Great Depression started on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929. It then continued til the late 1930s. It was an extremely difficult time for Americans. There was a significant decline in economic growth and employment. Millions of Americans lost their homes, money, and jobs. As a result, many people become poor and could no longer afford to buy the simplest things such as food. This type of situation never happened so quickly in America. Many did not know what to do or how to stop the Great Depression. It took a whole turn on America and a huge poll of Americans were not ready. The list goes on and on for who is to blame for the cause of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was caused by the act of public using credit, Smoot Hawley Tariff,
After the 1920s many people were eager to make money off successful business. According to Prasovic notes it states, “Millions of Americans invested in the bull market, becoming rich as stock prices rose … or poor as they fell”(Prasovic notes). Millions of Americans were trying to become rich fast. Essentially, people did buy in the belief they could become rich in a blink of eye. As a result people were not thinking about the consequences of if the stocks crashed. According to an article it states, “On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, stock prices plummeted because there were no buyers for the stock offered by desperate sellers. Millions of dollars were lost that day due to the decrease in stock prices”(Buying On Margin And Other Causes Of The Great Depression Paragraph 2). This showcases that those millions of dollars was the money millions of people who invested in the stock market. All the money that people invested in was vanished. Which left millions broke and since they had no money to pay their bills. Many were kicked out of their homes and were now homeless with no more to buy
Congress decided to raise the taxes on imported goods America was selling to foreign countries. According, to the article The Battle of the Smoot-Hawley it states, “So as deflation took hold after 1929, effective tariff rates climbed, discouraging imports. By 1932, the average American tariff on dutiable imports was 59.1%” (The Battle of Smoot-Hawley Paragraph 17). This showcases as the prices of the goods were raised not many countries wanted to buy goods from America. Therefore, if foreign countries were not buying goods imported America was not making any profit. Particularly, farmers and business were greatly affected because they had more goods to sell but yet no countries wanted to buy them because of high tariff. As a result, many business went out of business or had to close and farmers lost a lot of profit. According, to an article it states, “U.S. exports to Europe fell from $2341 million in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. With the reduction of American exports came also the destruction of American jobs, as unemployment levels which were 6.3% (June 1930) jumped to 11.6%” (What was the end-result of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act? Paragraph 2-3). In addition, to farmers and business losing huge amounts of profits, unemployment also skyrocketed. As a result, it lead to more people to become homeless and broke with no more money to support