Depression In Americ The Causes Of The Great Depression
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The Great Depression was “the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world” (http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression). It lasted ten years, from 1929-1939. Every day was a struggle to provide for families. Overall, the morale of the entire country went down. The public did anything they could to stay alive, even if it was frowned upon, everyone had to take care of themselves one way or another. The Great Depression was an awful time in history, which not only affected the entire country, but migrant workers like George and Lennie. (http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression) The 1920’s were a good time. Everyone was on a post war high. The win of World War I left everyone extremely
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Many did not believe it was possible to lose. Over a million Americans had money in the stock market. It only took four years for a majority of stocks to raise four hundred percent! Everything was going well, everyone was making money, until October 29, 1929. On this day the stock market crashed, rendering a million Americans out of their money. Spending and investments slowed immensely, causing an extreme drop in industrial output. Many companies began laying off their workers, therefore the unemployment rate rose steeply. Contrary to the popular belief, the stock market crash and the Great Depression were not the same thing. The stock market crash did happen directly before the Great Depression but it did not cause it, in fact, economists are still trying to discover what did cause the Great Depression so it never happens again. Many rich people lost their money in the crash, which was …show more content…
These people built dams and provided electric power to those in the Tennessee Valley by creating hydroelectric projects. This started a good road to recovery. The beginning of 1933 and continuing for three years, the GDP, which according to www.investopedia.com, “gages the health of a country’s economy”, grew at an average rate of nine percent every year. A hard recession occurred in 1937, but the economy began repairing itself again in 1938. Many important gains were reversed because of this short recession, such as jobs and production, which caused the effects of the Great Depression to last through the end of the decade.
Many did not believe it was possible to lose. Over a million Americans had money in the stock market. It only took four years for a majority of stocks to raise four hundred percent! Everything was going well, everyone was making money, until October 29, 1929. On this day the stock market crashed, rendering a million Americans out of their money. Spending and investments slowed immensely, causing an extreme drop in industrial output. Many companies began laying off their workers, therefore the unemployment rate rose steeply. Contrary to the popular belief, the stock market crash and the Great Depression were not the same thing. The stock market crash did happen directly before the Great Depression but it did not cause it, in fact, economists are still trying to discover what did cause the Great Depression so it never happens again. Many rich people lost their money in the crash, which was …show more content…
These people built dams and provided electric power to those in the Tennessee Valley by creating hydroelectric projects. This started a good road to recovery. The beginning of 1933 and continuing for three years, the GDP, which according to www.investopedia.com, “gages the health of a country’s economy”, grew at an average rate of nine percent every year. A hard recession occurred in 1937, but the economy began repairing itself again in 1938. Many important gains were reversed because of this short recession, such as jobs and production, which caused the effects of the Great Depression to last through the end of the decade.