Throughout the entirety of the United States of America’s existence, no economic crisis had, and to present day has, ever negatively affected so many lives for such a long period of time as the Great Depression did. From 1929 to 1932 over 85,000 businesses failed; more than 5,000 banks suspended operations; stock values on the New York Exchange fell from $87 billion to $19 billion; unemployment rose to 12 million, with nearly one-fourth of the population having no means of sustaining themselves; farm income fell by more than half, and manufacturing output decreased by more than 50 percent (Hunt p. 191). Tens of millions of Americans suffered through poverty without sufficient wages to pay for food and water for their families. Every capitalist
