Week 10 Reflection: Great Depression & New Deal

The Great Depression was a pivotal turning point in American history and caused significant changes in the way we operate as a nation. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, and stock prices fell drastically. Within two weeks, $30 billion removed from the United States economy. People began to withdraw their money, and banks fell throughout the industrial world. Millions of families lost their life savings and ultimately marked the beginning of the Great Depression. Many believe the stock market crash is what eventually caused the Great Depression, but this is incorrect. The Great Depression was caused by several things such as lack of banking and market regulations, foreign debts, unequal distribution of income/corporate power, and a belief in a self-regulating economy. Many Americans had over-confidence in the stock market when, in reality, stock prices were out of proportion to actual profits. The Depression had grave consequences on the people of the nation. Twenty-six thousand businesses closed down in 1930 alone, and massive unemployment swept the country, leaving 11 million with no jobs and no way to provide for their families. Wages and hours were reduced drastically, and prices fell to unprecedented levels. The image of big business from the 1920s quickly fell and revealed irregularities by banks and stockbrokers. Many Americans left the cities to grow food for their families and began to live in "Hoovervilles" or shantytowns made out of whatever they could find. President Hoover quickly began to develop a plan to aid Americans. His strategy was to ask businesses to maintain investment and employment and create neighborhood charities to help the poor. This plan failed to stop the economic downturn and refused to provide direct relief to the unemployed. He cut federal spending and increased taxes, which makes no sense because how are Americans going to pay more taxes when they cannot even afford food and a roof over their head.

Once Hoover left office in 1933, FDR became president and campaigned for the New Deal. The New Deal consisted of three R's: Relief, reform, and recovery. FDR was going to provide aid to unemployed and impoverished, reform the economy and the social injustices within the nation, and recover the economy to normal levels. The New Deal was ultimately a success and changed the country exponentially. The New Deal expanded presidential power, grew the American labor movement, and changed American politics forever. Black voting patterns shifted for the first time in history, and Democrats attracted black voters, farmers, immigrants, and workers (switch of political parties). African Americans began to change voting patterns because they were hit the hardest and were excluded from many relief programs. The black unemployment rate was double that of white unemployment, and Jim Crow infected the New Deal in the south. Blacks were excluded from the social security act and were not allowed to receive loans to live in white neighborhoods. By the end of the New Deal, the county saw a partial economic recovery, but 10 million Americans were still left unemployed, and the Great Depression was ended by mobilization for world war two.

 

A women trying to sell her own children to be able to survive.

https://historydaily.org/job-hunting-during-the-great-depression

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=14&smtid=2