The decade marked the flourishing of the modern mass-production, mass-consumption economy, which delivered fantastic profits to investors while also raising the living standard of the urban middle and working-class.
But for the large minority of Americans who made their livelihoods in agriculture, the decade roared only with the agony of prolonged depression.
Labor Militancy, Recession, and Recovery
The Roaring '20s actually began with an economic whimper—the transition back to peacetime after World War I was a difficult adjustment.
Labor unions, which had grown strong during the …show more content…
The decade began with the end of a period of great prosperity. World War I, by disrupting the agricultural production of much of Europe, had created enormous demand and high prices for farm products throughout the world. Farmers in America, like other areas that hadn't been turned into trench-lined battle zones, increased production accordingly and reaped great profits.
However, the war's end allowed the resumption of normal European production, and suddenly, the world faced a huge glut of agricultural products, with no market of buyers.
From 1920 to 1921, farm prices fell at a catastrophic rate. The price of wheat, the staple crop of the Great Plains, fell by almost half. The price of cotton, still the lifeblood of the South, fell by three-quarters. Farmers, many of whom had taken out loans to increase acreage and buy efficient new agricultural machines like tractors, suddenly couldn't make their payments.
Throughout the decade, farm foreclosures and rural bank failures increased at an alarming rate. Agricultural incomes remained flat, with rural Americans' wealth falling far behind their urban counterparts. Rural electrification increased at a snail's pace, with more than 90% of American farms still lacking power into the