Causes of the Great Depression
Many people think that the Great Depression was caused solely by the stock market crash. Anybody who tells you this probably didn’t pass U.S. History in high school. The fact is, the Great Depression was caused many different factors. Four of which were overproduction, uneven distribution of wealth, protective tariffs, and the four “sick industries” of the 1920’s.
After World War I, new technological improvements helped factories to produce higher quantities of goods using smaller amounts of employees. Fewer workers meant less money being redistributed to the consumers to purchase products. America didn’t have a necessity for this higher quantity of goods with less people
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In reaction to this, other nations stopped buying American-made goods and the United States’ economy floundered because of this.
During the 1920’s, four of America’s leading industries began to struggle. First, railroads had difficulties because of the growing competition from cars, trucks, and busses. Second, textiles floundered because of the foreign competition from India, China, Japan, and Latin America. Furthermore, the revolutionary transformation in women clothing reduced the amount of material needed and thus lowered the demand for cloth. Third, the coal mining industry struggled because of competition from cheaper, more widely available resources such as natural gas, oil, and hydroelectric power. Fourth, America’s agriculture industry staggered chiefly from overproduction. Many farmers borrowed money to expand their operations and couldn’t pay back their loans because the prices of crops dropped about 50 percent due to foreign agricultural competition.
In conclusion, the Great Depression can’t be attributed to just one cause. However, among overproduction; uneven distribution of wealth; protective tariffs; and the struggling of America’s leading industries, the largest contributor to causing the depression, in my opinion, was the unequal distribution of income. I believe this because if congress attempted to redistribute money to the consumers, people would have been able to purchase
During the 1860’s America was in a period of economic hardship due to the ongoing demand for materials and money to fund the war. In the South, sufficient money and materials were hard to acquire because the southern economy still depended on the labor of slaves to produce their goods and income rather than factories. The Northern economy used numerous factories to produce goods and make profit for the war, but they still did not have technology that was advanced enough to easily produce all the necessary materials and money. After the civil war, America embarked on a journey of economic expansion and unification for the nation. In the late 19th century, government policies, technological advancements and population changes contributed to
Also that sales of vegetables and fruits went to bankruptcies, also a president did not want anyone to enter their
Second cause of the great depression is the uneven distribution of wealth. Business owners made huge profit from the beginning of the Roaring Twenties. These business owners did not deal with the low wages of their workers. As a result, the workers were not able to afford goods as these companies produced them. Also, after the world war one, the European nations owed America billions of dollars. The economy of these European countries was devastating; thus, there was no way for these countries to repay.
Historians argue what caused the Great Depression, some say it was due to the stock market, others say it may be the war debt or overproduction. To believe the Great Depression was caused by only one event is naive. It was caused by a multitude of problems that the government failed to fix.
The Great Depression was a dreadful worldwide economic depression that occurred in the 1930s and it was the most profound and longest depression in the American History, which lasted from 1929-1939. Although the Great Depression began soon after the crash of the stock market in October 1929, it is too straightforward to say that that was the major cause of the Great Depression. This crash did not by itself cause the Great Depression. Even before the year 1929, signs of economic trouble had become evident. (Give Me Liberty! An American History, 5TH Edition, Eric Foner, Pg 811).
The Great Depression was the result of life during the Roaring Twenties. People heavily valued materialism and hedonism which in-turn made many people try to find a way to gain a large amount of money in a short period of time. As more and more people were intoxicated with greed and selfishness, they became more careless through their actions and made many mistakes. These mistakes led to the
There were easily multiple causes for the start of the Great Depression in 1929. Many historians and economists put emphasis on organizational causes such as actions by the Federal Reserve. Often part of any business cycle are recessions due to the changes of supply and demand, but what turns this business cycle into a depression is always up for debate. In the case of the Great Depression, the stock market crash of 1929, bank failures, debt deflation, and American economic policies with Europe
The economic expansion of the 1920’s, with its increased production of goods and high profits, culminated in immense consumer speculation that collapsed with disastrous results in 1929 causing America’s Great Depression. There were a number or contributing factors to the depression, with the largest and most important one being a general loss of confidence in the American economy. The reason it escalated was a general misunderstanding of recessions by American policymakers of the time.
The Great Depression was a huge economic downfall in North America and involved many other industrialized countries of the world. The Depression began in 1929 and lasted for about ten years. Millions of people lost their jobs along with many businesses going bankrupt. The common misconception of the Great Depression is people think that the stock market crash was the main cause for it. There were many causes for the Depression; unequal distribution of money during the 1920’s was the main cause of the Depression. This unequal distribution happened on many different classes of people. The imbalance of money is what created such an unstable economy. The stock market was doing much worse than people thought
When the citizens had bought all that they could buy, there was a decrease in demand. Suddenly, the industries had an excess of goods and no one to sell it to. At this point, the Fordney-McCumber Act began to cripple the economy of America. Other nations introduced high tariffs to boost their revenue and to spite the United States. Sadly for the United States, these high tariffs and low demand were instrumental in the depression that America experienced. When the stock market crashed on October 29th, 1929 or “Black Tuesday”, the united states, along with other nations were in economic turmoil and the widespread prosperity of the 1920s ended abruptly. The depression threatened people's jobs, savings, and even their homes and farms. During the heart of the depression, over one-quarter of the American population was out of work. For many Americans, these were extremely hard times. When Roosevelt was voted into office, he introduced the New Deal. While this plan tried to help the united states out of it’s isolationist rut, the second world war was the final solution. Mobilizing the economy for world war finally cured the depression. Millions of men and women joined the armed forces, and even larger numbers went to work in well-paying defence jobs.
There were several factors that played a major role in the Great Depression. The main explanation was overproduction of both farm and factory and the unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920s. The excessive speculation in the 1920s kept the stock market at a deceitful high, and came crashing down in 1929. Over extended credit at
Uneven distribution of wealth serves as another cause of the Great Depression. America was wealthy in the 1920s, but this wealth did not extend to all segment of the society. The gains made by wealthy Americans in the 1920s far outstripped gained made by the working class. By the time of the stock market crash, the upper one percent of the population controlled over sixty percent of the nation’s savings. On the other hand, over three quarters of American families made less than $3000 a year. Problems that could develop from this situation were obvious. The bottom-line three-quarters of families were too poor to purchase much to help the economics to flourish. Underconsumption, in the long run, was a vicious circle to the economy. People had no money to spend. The income of many firms dwindled. More people were laid off or cut hours and thus further cut their spending. The economics became stagnant.
Many people speculate that the stock market crash of 1929 was the main cause of The Great Depression. In fact, The Great Depression was caused by a series of factors, and the effects of the depression were felt for many years after the stock market crash of 1929. By looking at the stock market crash of 1929, bank failures, reduction of purchasing, American economic policy with Europe, and drought conditions, it becomes apparent that The Great Depression was caused by more than just the stock market crash. The effects were detrimental beyond the financial crisis experienced during this time period.
It got so bad due to a misunderstanding of a slump by American policymakers. This became a problem.
There are various factors that led to the Great Depression. To begin, the lack of bank regulation was a big factor. The Federal Reserve Act which made banks have money on reserve, was not enforced. Another big factor was easy credit, Easy credit made it easy for people to get money out the bank without having the money to pay it back. Furthermore, the reduction in purchasing across the board can easily be said to be another key factor. With the stock market being down many people within every social class stop purchasing items. Which would cause a decreased not only the number of items being purchased but also the loss of people jobs. Many people had thing on layaway, so usually they would just pay for it monthly. However once they lost their