Empathizing with the Economic Slump

by Royce Le

          Industrialization took a big blunder when they made a few bad economic choices that lead to the Great Depression. Around 1929, the Stock Market crashed and the Great Depression era started and was essentially the most depressing, drawn out, and severe economic downfall the U.S has experienced in history. The Stock Market crash was primarily due to overproduction, inflation, and the development of investment buying. People bought products such as ovens, lamps, music players, and refrigerators through investments of low prices such as one dollar each week. People essentially spent money that was never there; when they lost their jobs, companies lost money since their consumers could not pay them back. Thus lead to this whole domino effect that made prices increase, production to slow down, business started to close, people losing their jobs, and the whole depression cycle. Banks ultimately could not hand loans out anymore, consumers could not buy products, businesses could not function, and everything seemed to retrograde from there, trades with other countries suffered, thus not only did the U.S experience this depression factor, but other countries as well.

       

 To the left we see a picture of children picketing on the streets for their parent’s jobs. It was common to see children during this era to wander the streets selling items, asking for jobs, or picketing. This still occurs in third world countries today such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India. 

     

In taking a closer look at the effects on Americans, many workers lost their jobs, many companies went bankrupt and were forces to closed, and many family bonds were broken due to the issue of money.  According to a an article produced from Illinois University, “The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.” This statistic essentially depicts the impacts and the sorrow that many U.S citizens faced during the Great Depression. But instead of the effects on the citizens and businesses, one of the essential results was the transformation of government in this era for the Great Depression really tested and put the government on the hot spot for they were the ones in charge to decide the future of America. Thus why “the Great Depression is often called a ‘defining moment’ in the twentieth-century history of the United States” according to the Library of Economics Liberty. All in all, the Great Depression defied the American Dream and put a cruel burden on the citizens of America, but none the less, the federal government was transforming and have eventually led the way to new economic future where individuals and society can reach new economic dreams and endeavors that correlate with the American Dream.