American Politics And the Great Depression

Name: Course Name: Instructor’s Name: Date: American politics and the Great Depression Introduction Depression is a phenomenon associated with mass unemployment ansd an economic hardship. The world depression occurred in the year nineteen thirty and the American economists and politicians have referred it to as “panics”. An example is the panics of the year eighteen seventy three and the panics of the eighteen ninety three. An American president by then named panic as the depression and the name stuck. The great depression affected all industrialized countries in the world namely Britain, France and Germany. Great depression is associated with creating inflation that cripples the nation’s economy. Main body Great depression in America is associated with social problems. The common social related challenges reflects; poverty, unemployment, school drop outs, breakdown of families, organized protests, homelessness, development of shacks and slums and declined farming. American people were demanding their pensions from the banks. People in America became hopeless to a point of having organized peaceful demonstrations in the streets (McElvaine Para 2). The great depression in America portrayed various images namely, bread lines, college graduates becoming attendants in the gas stations, former successful businessmen selling apples or pencils in the streets, increased suicides, increased mental illnesses, hoboes hopping freight trains and farmers in Oklahoma escaping the dust bowl by attempting to migrate to California. Great depression caused massive unemployment in America. Businesses collapsed in the fact that people had no money to buy goods and services. Farmers had to abandon their farming activities. Maintaining farms were no longer possible, the farmers had debts to pay for the machineries and land extensions. People became desperate in that they could not manage paying their debts and feed their families. The crops were selling at cheap prices which wiped out the profit margins. There was a great drought in America in the year nineteen thirty one and nineteen thirty two specifically in the Mid West and South America. Trans-Mississippi West was turned into a dust ball. Farmers ate their farm produce. The depression period was characterized with minimal migration from the farms to the cities. Farmers stayed put in the rural regions. America’s population was below the poverty line. Escapism was a reality in America. In fact one third of the Americas population was considered poor. There were some industries that made profits in America at the depression period though few. The public was devastated and looking for a way to escape. Majority of workers were joblessness and resulted to drug abuse, driving aimlessly and watching movies to kill the escalating boredom. Depression forced the sales of cigarettes, gas and movie tickets to go up due to increased demands (McElvaine Para 2). Researchers established that three B’s caused the depression. The listed are bankers, brokers and businessmen. These factors let to state of economic hardship and catastrophe. The great depression was responsible for the transformations which were dramatic in the structure and nature of the American politics (Schultz Para 2). This drove changes in ...