Perhaps the worst economic downturn in the history of the United States occurred from 1930-1939. The Great Depression led to domestic and international crises effecting the poor and wealthy alike. Many financial experts today continue to debate the cause of The Depression, although most agree that several events led to the economic decline. The famous stock market crash on October 29, 1929 is just one of many causes economists believe led to The Great Depression. Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.).
Audrey Smith Period 3 February 23, 2012 Mr. Parks Effects of The Great Depression In the movie, “The Cinderella Man,” it shows the troubles and hardships of an average American family during the time of the Great Depression. As the movie plays out, you see the physical as well as the mental state people went through. For this family, they had lost almost everything. It’s a wonder anyone could have survived such a way during this time period in America.
Funding for this facility was continually cut and as a result, Willowbrook was short staffed, care providers were uneducated and just frustrated in general. The video depicted mostly children looking malnourished and miserable. Children with special needs who weren't able to even feed themselves were given only a few minutes to eat each meal and disease and sickness plagued the residents. Many families found their children abused, bruised, having broken bones, or with their fingers and toes stuck together from lack of use. Many witnesses on the documentary complained of the smell that enveloped the facility, stating that the residents were uncared for, and thus unhygienic.
In a lecture by Professor Newman, it was made known of the concept “selling short”, meaning, big businessmen would try to make more money on a market they knew was going down, and with that came a lot of common people losing money. When prices started to collapse over 40 billion dollars’ worth of stock value suddenly disappeared, and so did people’s money. With this caused the famous stock market crash in 1929. Almost immediately big businessmen started shutting down factories and firing employees and the demand for products went down, and with that, unemployment reached 15 million. In the lecture, Professor Newman uses the example of steel to show how much stocks declined.
Modern American Society These days it is tough to be an American. Everyone is losing their jobs, money, and homes. America is in the worst shape it has ever been since the Great Depression. Franchises across the country are making massive downgrade within their businesses. Employees are losing their; 401(k) accounts, pension plans, and their social security benefits.
APS Social Studies Causes of the Great Depression DBQ Historical Context: The Great Depression in the United States started in 1929 when the stock market crashed. It caused an economic depression. The depression last over ten years and had long-term social, economic, and political effects on American society. It is still one of the greatest defining eras in US History. In general, we know what caused the Great Depression, but these causes are still debated even today.
There is no doubt that here in America we are dealing with one of the greatest economic downfalls. It is said that 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. This is due to the shrinking number of jobs, the rise of the working poor, the dependency on the government is raising, health cost (the biggest threat of all) are crippling American families, and more and more children, our nations future, are living in poverty or close to poverty. Due to the recession in America people are forced to do what is necessary in order to survive. For many businesses and companies one of the easiest ways to save money has been by reducing the number of employees.
The Great Depression was a severe period of poverty and tragedy. It effected many other countries not just America; especially in Europe, where many countries had not fully recovered from the aftermath of World War I. The cost of World War I weakened the ability of the world to respond to a major crisis. America alone had ten billon dollars of debt from the war. In Germany America’s economic failure contributed to the rise of Adolf Hiltler, so the Stock Market Crash had a domino effect on our country and others.
The Causes of the Great Depression The Great Depression was an economic downfall that to this day is the worst economic downfall in U.S history. The depression started in the United States. People all over the world were affected by it, especially in Europe, Germany, Great Britain and other industrialized areas of the world. Mainly because America was a big creditor to those countries after World War I. The Great Depression lasted in America for at least ten years, but it took twenty-seven years to get the economy back above depression levels.
The middle class was nearly non-existent. This occurs often in the world, but the Great Depression was the worst economic downfall in the history of the U.S. It spread and affected all of the industrialized world. The depression began with Black Tuesday, and lasted for nearly a decade. According to Paul Alexander Gusmorino, the main cause of the drastic downfall was the combination of unequal distribution of wealth and the extensive stock market speculation that took place in the later years of that decade.