Shawn Wambach- Christian #606 The Great Depression
Truly the great depression was in my opinion the worst era that this country has ever seen. One major reason is the complete lack of hope that resided in Americans. Although, one can not judge them for not having hope when we look at the surroundings that most Americans lived in. The book says “1 out of every 4 was unemployed”. It is easy to say a statistic like that without really looking at what it means. 1 out of every 4 families didn’t have any income coming in. Which either meant that they were starving or barely surviving off of government aid. Can you imagine your neighbors literally dieing form starvation… or even worse maybe your mother. That is what caused so many to get up and leave or get kicked out of their houses. There was a great migration to California, the sunshine state. Although the shanty towns that people lived in there certainly weren’t any better.
The great depression didn’t just come out of no where. The 20’s may have been called the roaring 20’s because of economic expansion but that didn’t mean that everyone was rich. In my opinion the great depression didn’t happen just because of the stock market crash, that just might have been the straw that broke the camels back. To me the great depression happened because of the way the economy of the 20’s was run. If the millions of factory unskilled factory workers aren’t making anything then there is no need for the mass production that is being produced. Thus, a depression will most likely set in.
FDR’s speeches and social programs gave hope to the American people. There was increased survival rates after welfare was initiated. Although if it wasn’t for the demand that popped up from WWII, I don’t know if the New deal would have been enough to end the depression.