The Great Depression

The Great Depression
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Institution
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The Great Depression
Introduction
The great depression is one of the huge financial tragedies that significantly affected Americans; millions of people were forced out of work. During 1930 up to 1940 America experienced a period of extreme economic instability lasting for several years marking the beginning of government involvement in the country economy (Wecter, 1952). This essay will discuss the events that led to the Great Depression, analyzing the political, cultural, social, and its historical context. This essay illustrates some of the factors that resulted in the main formative events identifying some of the key characteristics, the trends, events, and policies associated with the great depression.Background of the Great Depression
The great depression affected America and other nations for several years. In October 1929 commonly referred to as Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed, and the effects of this crash were felt all over the country. This was the beginning of the great depression. American believed that one way of fighting poverty was to invest in the stock market. Prior to the market crash, stock prices had increased, and bulk market existed. With time, the stock market started fluctuating as analyst hopes the market would stabilize by itself. However, the stock markets prices crashed in a way that it could not rise again. This situation caused panic as the stock market had be viewed for long as the path to wealth was putting people to bankruptcy. People were losing their jobs, banks, businesses whether small or big were all closing, and the whole country seemed to be out of work (Wecter, 1952).
The Impacts of Great Depression
During this period Herbert Hoover was the president of the US, he fueled false hope as he always talked about optimism despite the annual per-capita income being $750 (Wicker, 1996). More than half of all Americans were living below a minimum subsistence level. As a result, citizens blamed President Herbert Hoover for human suffering. Unemployment increased since industries could not take employees anymore. According to research three-quarters of the labor force in all the industrialized countries could not work anymore during that time. These countries only recovered by the end of that decade.Cultural Impact
To survive the great depression, the Americans were forced to change their habits, resulting to a mass migration that occurred in 1930 (Wicker, 1996). The migration trends from rural areas to urban centers stressed the living capacity in many cities. Due to migration families’ cultural setting were changed. Families disintegrated as family bonds were broken due to migration. Another cultural effect of the great depression was the decrease in birth rates. Most families opted not to add more children as marriage rates also decrease. People put on hold matrimonial issues until better times. The worst effect of this economic hardship was the rise of antisocial behaviors like crime, theft prostitution as people had to survive (Wicker, 1996).Social Impact
Due to economic depression many people lost their jobs and could not afford the necessities like food, shelter among others. Women worked harder to ensure their families survived as men who lost their jobs felt ashamed and hopeless. Women and children worked as men felt their status was being challenged. Women were accused of taking over the roles of men in society. The state of the economy in America deteriorated and socio-economic problems arose one after another. Unemployment resulted in poverty as people lived in deteriorating conditions, families lacked cohesiveness as children dropped out of school. Furthermore, most citizens were homeless due to abject poverty; those who migrated to big cities in search of employment were homeless and built shanties with cardboard or tar paper identified as Hooverville. With time protesting groups were rising as living conditions worsened (Burg, 2005).
Factors That Resulted In the Great Depression in the Twentieth Century
Several factors are associated with the great depression; one of the common factors is the crash of the stock market. The stock market by then was unregulated, in addition, there were allot of speculation that encouraged many citizens to buy shares in the stock market. Due to this demand, most people purchased stocks on credit commonly known as margin buying. More loans meant buying highly prized stocks. When the market crashed all their investment was lost. Banks who were the main lenders could not recover their money. Investors incurred great losses of over forty thousand billion dollars. As much as the stock market started to recover, it became more challenging owing to other external factors leading to the great depression (Wicker, 1996).
In addition, banks closed and most citizens lost their savings because of economic depression, banks could not keep up with the effects of the fluctuating stock market prices. Most banks deposits were uninsured, and some of the banks that survived could not ...