Farm income went down from the drought. The auto industries declined and employers cut wages and laid off workers. There was 25% unemployment. Five thousand banks failed. Seventy five percent of American families lived in poverty.
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.
They never did anything to them, they were just slaves because they were a different skin color. This continues all the way to the end of the film when slaves are again being transported, but in a truck. The way white people are portrayed throughout the film is also accurate for the time period. They think they are better than everyone else and that they have power over blacks. It is true that white people owned plantations and that they had slaves that would tend to the cotton as well as the house on the plantation.
Since the beginning of the depression, a fifth of all banks had been forced to close. As a consequence, around 15% of people's life-savings had been lost. By the beginning of 1933 the American people were starting to lose faith in their banking system and a significant proportion were withdrawing their money and keeping it at home. The day after taking office as
During autumn of 1929 the stock market began behaving highly volatile. Stock market prices were expanded to just about breaking point, and then suddenly it crashed. Because of the Stock Market Crash the gross national product dropped 40 %, $6.1 billion in 1929 to $3.5 billion in 1933 (The Canadian History Page). The Bank had no money left because of the effect of the stock market crash. Wages in the industrial sector were not keeping up with huge increase in manufacture and profits.
Readers at the time would have related to the situation as racism was still a common habit in the 1930s. Steinbeck tries to make them empathise with Crooks' situation. Referred to as 'stable buck', Crooks suffers from dehumanization as his identity is defined by his function on the farm. Crooks is crippled by his society through his physical infirmities and the colour of his skin. His experiences are similar to those of Curley's wife who also receives a vitriolic opinion from the ranch
A colored man got to have some rights even if he don't like 'em" (Steinbeck 90). Exclusive of Crooks, Curly’s wife tends to be romping around the farm making everything more difficult for everyone else, as Carl shares, "Maybe you better go along to you own house now. We don’t want no trouble" (Steinbeck, 85). In the end they both have a drive to be accepted and talked to, but just how far they will go to achieve it differs
Then, some of those millions started part-time jobs. Even those who kept full-time jobs often had to accept a reduction in wages. In the United States, the income per capita had fallen from about $700 in 1929 to about $400 in 1933. Most of Europe had gone through his problem. 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.
Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of "poor" persons in the U.S. In 2005, the Bureau found 37 million "poor" Americans. Presidential candidate John Edwards claims that these 37 million Americans currently "struggle with incredible poverty." Edwards asserts that America's poor, who number "one in eight of us…do not have enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need," and are forced to live in "terrible" circumstances.However, an examination of the living standards of the 37 million persons, whom the government defines as "poor," reveals that what Edwards calls "the plague" of American poverty might not be as "terrible" or "incredible" as candidate Edwards contends. Poverty is an important and emotional issue.
This system costs 750 Billion Rupees ($13.6 billion) a year, almost 1 percent if India’s gross domestic product. One-fifth of India’s people are malnourished; double the rate of other developing countries like Vietnam and China because of pervasive corruption, mismanagement and waste in the programs that are supposed to distribute food to the poor. Under the FDS, the federal government buys grain from farmers at prices high enough to keep farmers lobby happy and stores the food in warehouses. Each state then takes a certain amount of grain from these stocks based on how many of its residents are poor. Lastly, these states distribute food at subsidized prices through what are called ration shops.