THE GREAT DEPRESSION American success failed when the stock market crashed in 1929 during President Herbert Hoover’s administration. All of a sudden people were out of work, thousands lost their savings, and the nation was in a state of shock. Even millionaires lost their money. The problems and the causes that led up to The Great Depression were multiple. Farm income went down from the drought.
What Caused the Great Depression? Many believe that the stock market crash that occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 is one and the same with the Great Depression. Actually, the stock market crash was only one of the major causes that led to the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars (Doc D). Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and American truly entered what is called the Great Depression.
Only Soviet Russia, the country which had basically isolated its self from every other country at the time, had not been affected by the Great Depression. But the Russian people, especially in the Ukraine, had suffered very badly for several years after 1929 for other reasons and causes. Another effect of the Great Depression was the shrinkage in trade and manufacturing. It shrank rapidly, for example, in 1929 the estimated value of United States imports and exports had gotten up to ten billion dollars. By 1933 the value had dropped to three billion.
The widespread prosperity of the 1920s ended abruptly with the stock market crash in October 1929 and the great economic depression that followed. The depression threatened people's jobs, savings, and even their homes and farms. At the depths of the depression, over one-quarter of the American workforce was out of work. For many Americans, these were hard times. The New Deal, as the first two terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency were called, became a time of hope and optimism.
Bands traveled around the country to perform which could incur up to $30 in gas per trip. Gasoline prices fluctuated from $.25-.30 (Historical Gas Prices, 1919-2004) at the end of the Jazz Age causing travel to be quite expensive for large groups. It was cheaper for smaller bands to travel; so many large bands broke apart. Demand for live music began to decrease at the start of the Great Depression because families were too poor to spend their funds recreationally. “25 percent of all workers and 37 percent of all nonfarm workers were completely out of work,” (Smiley).
It happened on an 8 square mile island that took the mane, Iwo Jima (Battle of Iwo Jima, par 1). American troops were told that their goal was to take the airfield of Iwo Jima for the future bombing of Tokyo. The Japanese were assigned to kill ten American soldiers before they had the right to die. The battle lasted from February 19, 1945 to March 26, 1945, which was a little over a month,. In thirty-six days there were nearly twenty-six thousand US casualties, almost seven thousand American troops were KIA (Hama, Erksine and Williams 98).
First, the stock market dropped immensely thus causing the instability of the dollar, weakening its value worldwide. The main reason was one of the major stock holding company’s office was located in the Twin Towers. Through the years after 9/11 the stock market has showed promise and has had a steady increase each year. Secondly, after the attacks the airline industry shut down temporarily causing major transportation problems. Thousands of airline employees lost their jobs.
But there have been presidential hardships, too. Abraham Lincoln was in complete poverty after a sour investment in a general store that went bankrupt. He was paying down debts into the 1840s. President Harry S. Truman was relatively poor all of his life and took a major hit after a clothing store he owned went bankrupt. He and his wife were also the first two to officially receive Lyndon B. Johnson`s famed Medicare
Joseph Canlas Bergen Catholic AP U.S. History September 26, 2011 The Impact of the Great Depression on Social Groups A decade following the end of World War II, tragedy befell the United States. With the transition from war to a time of peace, factories previously dedicated to the production of warfare supplies (i.e. ammo, artillery, clothing, vehicles) were forced to either shutdown or change their produce. Large amounts of money were used in the demobilization of soldiers and these incoming soldiers were in great need for re-entry into the work force. The size of the army was decreasing at the expense of the labor market, which struck its peak at 1.6 million people.
This is causing some businesses to let people go, drop hours, and not fill empty positions. “The percentage of nonelderly individuals without health insurance coverage was 18.9 percent in 2009, up from 17.4 percent in 2008, and its highest level during the 1994–2009 period. These trends are due to job losses resulting from the recent recession and slow economic recovery, fewer workers being eligible for coverage, and more workers with coverage dropping it.” (Fronstin, 2010)This hurts people who are looking to find work. “According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, more than 78 percent of America’s 28 million businesses are “non-employer” firms, people who create their job and have nobody else on payroll. That’s a workforce of almost 22 million – larger than California and Michigan combined – and many are America’s entrepreneurs and job creators.” (Anderson, 2014) This also raises prices to the consumer to buy the products made in the companies.