The Great Depression Essay

Submitted By 323robles
Words: 749
Pages: 3

The Great Depression
Prompt: To what extent did the Great Depression impact the United States?
The Great Depression was the biggest economic crisis in the history of the United States. The Great Depression began in 1929 when the stock market crashed. Then came "Black Tuesday" which was on October 29, 1929. This was a period in time that increased the amount of poverty in the country as well as overproduction, and in brought social and economic issues. The country lost control over the people and many were unemployed. I believe it had an enormous impact mostly on the economy which affected the society, rather than affecting the political points of view more, of the country.
The Great Depression caused a significant impact on the economy. Some of the results were poverty, over production, and a lot of credit loans. As shown on the unemployment chart by the United States government, we can see that the rate of unemployment rose dramatically during the Great Depression. Also, in the personal income chart a United States government source, it shows that the income dropped dramatically too. Without any money and a low incentive to produce more goods, many factories began to close throughout the country. When the factories began to close, the workers were left unemployed, or many of the workers endured pay cuts.

The Great Depression not only damaged the economy but also affected the social life of many people. With the uneven distribution of wealth, many families lost their homes and send their children to live a better life with other family members or friends of their families. The children were also affected due to the fact that the parents would tell them they would call or come back, but they never did. Not only was the uneven distribution of wealth, but also unemployment a really big cause of these families breaking up. As stated in document 3, you can see that many unemployed would go to soup kitchens to eat because they had no money at all to pay for food or their house rents. Also illustrated on document 4 it shows how many people moved to California because of the Dust Bowl. Many people lost their farms; all of their plantations got ruined because their soil turned to drought. Many farmers were not able to grow anymore crops, so they had to sell their farms and at a really low price. They would think that at least they would get some money and they would move to a different place and start a new life and not live in poverty like many people in the city. The Dust Bowl really made it harder for many more people especially farmers.

The Great Depression affected politically too but it was a smaller issue compared to the social life and to the economy of the country. During the depression many political movements rose to try to help the economy. This is shown on the Membership in the