Many Chinese Americans or “Chinamen” were unjustly harassed, prosecuted and even killed for reasons that were unprecedented. Although Chinese immigrants have been an important group that helped the U.S economy become stronger; many were denied entrance into the U.S because of the Exclusion Act of 1882. In 1848, the word of
The 1920s were not such a positive time period in the US history. What made the 20s negative was farmers’ hardships, the overuse of credit, and re-rise of the KKK. American farmers were able to make profits during WWI because demand for war products was high. After the war, when everything returned to normal, demand for farm products also fell. Farms and factories that were prosperous during the war now faced difficulties to sell their products.
The collapse of the housing market and unemployment caused the most damage. Between 1991 to 1992 unemployment had gone back up to 2.6 million. Negative equity meant home owner were paying mortgages far higher than their homes were worth. Many people could simply not keep up with the increased prices and resulted in them losing their homes due to the bank repossessing them. The recession hit close to home for the Tories, effecting the middle class not just the working class of the industrial north.
The government is allowing immigrants to enter the country with less than satisfactory education skills. Nearly 31 percent of foreign born residents over the age of twenty-five are without a high school diploma, compared to just 10 percent of native-born residents. Immigrants trail behind natives in college attendance. It wouldn’t make sense to grant permanent legal status and full job market to millions of unskilled immigrants. Journalist Sonia Nazario states, “Those harderst hit by the influx of immigrants are disadvantaged native-born minorities who don’t have a high school degree”(536).
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).
Because of this, close to two million refugees fled Western Europe to come to North America to try to escape the famine that ravaged their homelands. Nearly one million of these immigrants came from Ireland where the impact of the blight was felt the hardest. From the moment the Irish landed in Boston, they were subject to poor living conditions and inability to earn a livable wage. In New York, they faced a better reception, but were often taken advantage of by “runners,” or people who promised them aid when they came into the country. The immigrants were promised a place to stay, food to eat, and a place to house their belongings but received only horrible living conditions that were torn away from them when their money ran out and their possessions were retained as
Iluta Urka History 220 The panic of 1873 set off a depression that lasted six years, the longest and most severe that Americans had yet suffered. Thousands of businesses went bankrupt; millions of people lost their jobs, and as usually occurs, voters blamed the party in power for their economic woes. The primary cause of the price depression in the United States was the tight monetary policy that the US followed to get back to the gold standard after the US Civil War. The US government was taking money out of circulation to achieve this goal; therefore there was less available money to facilitate trade. Because of the Panic of 1873, governments depegged their currencies, to save money.
This injustice took place in 1866; after a decade of injustice behaviors that the Chinese Americans received in all places such as being banned from certain jobs and the Anti – Chinese law in the state constitution of 1877, which took place after this case. In the preamble it says “we the people” and if they meant it then anyone should be able to testify in court. Also it states that “we the people,” “will secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves.” This that we promote justice; if that was true then it wouldn’t matter what culture we were because we are all Americans and justice would have been served to the criminal in the case. In the world of the Chinese Americans’ no rules apply, they are treated in a way that is not acceptable to the American lifestyle. They were not treated equally by the federal government or society and all three of these cases have shown the injustices and trials that the Chinese Americans have suffered.
Capitalist development and economic downturn eroded American workers sense of pride and progress throughout the sixty years leading up to 1840. Beginning after 1844, mass immigration from Europe to the United States gave American business owners and employers a new source of cheap human labor, which further undermined organized American labor. Most of these immigrants were unskilled Catholic Irish and German agricultural workers. American working class Protestants despised them for their faith and heritage, in addition to their poverty. Likewise, by the 1840s, the free black population in the U.S. had expanded due to the emerging belief that slavery was immoral.
In today’s current news nothing is more prominent than that of the American government and it’s struggles. The American Economy has been a main focus of thousands of Americans for the past few years. A lot that has been argued deals with the massive difference between the upper 1% of the nation and the angry 99% of the rest. Occupy Wall Street deals with these angry 99% looking for some sort of reciprocation from these individuals and the hopes that they can began to enjoy their lives without the fear of becoming broke and possibly homeless due to the failing economy of the U.S.A. ("Occupy Wall Street"). This movement has highly appealed to the youth of this nation especially that of the college graduate students that are still struggling to