The Great Depression Stats essays

The Great Depression Stats essays The Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s began when the stock market crashed on October 24, 1929 after reaching an all-time high on September 3, 1929. Everyone was jubilant and happy before the crash because the 1,500,00 people in America who had invested in shares of companies were making a lot of money. Corporations were experiencing a period of time when expansion was up, poverty was down and everyone was happy. Bankers attempted to calm stock holders but on October 29, 1929 some 16,000,000 shares were sold at a loss and all of America was in a panic. The stock market crash itself brought down practically the entire U.S. economy and lowered wages, which in turn brought more problems. Food shortages occurred and many people found that they could no longer afford bread and butter to feed themselves. Within most big cities there was some form of relief system set up and many people went there in order to eat, while trying not to let their friends notice that they were there. Soon after, the cities ran out of money for the relief programs and some people were without food and shelter. Six months after the stock crash 4,000,000 people had lost there jobs. Many people lost their homes and built shacks out of anything they could find, such as cardboard, cans, and old wood. In 1932 14,000,000 people were jobless and $75,000,000,000 was estimated to be lost. Farmers were known to dump harvested crops and food in order to drive up prices and create shortages because they couldnt make enough money to feed their family. Personal families were also seriously affected because there was no food to go around and good people had to steal or beg to feed their families. When Soviet Russia offered a job that required 6,000 people, 100,000 applied. The suicide rate rose and the birthrate dropped as hope for recovery began dropping. When Congress began a bill that would give a bonus to Veterans of war, a prote...