What factors casused it? What impact did it have then? What was the government's initial response? How did FDR's response differ? What programs did FDR implement? How effective were they? What long term impact did they have? How did it end? Let's discuss it all!
The Great Depression (1929-1942)Causes of the Great Depression included:
-An unstable economy where national wealth was not distributed evenly. Supply became greater than demand and prices began to go up leaving Americans unable to purchase such costly goods, and also leaving workers and farmers with no profit.
-Unwise investing by the government. Congress would pass high tariffs that protected American industries but hurt farmers and trade.
-Stock market crash of 1929. Because the stock market boom was based on borrowed money and also because of panic selling and high volumes of trading, the stock market could not sustain such high price levels and began to fall.
How the Great Depression impacted Americans:
-Banks, factories, and businesses began to fail after the crash and struggled to stay open. Because of the closing of so many business and factories millions of Americans became unemployed with no where to turn.
-Farm prices dropped while Hoover denied that federal relief was necessary.
-Americans began to live a life of poverty, with no money, food, or shelter. Hoovervilles were built as shelter for these people, soup kitchens provided them with meals, and selling apples on the street became their only way of survival.
- Mass migration began to take place as viscious dust storms swept over farms during the Dust Storm, leaving even more Americans homeless and starving.
The governments initial response:
-The first act to be passed under Hoovers administration was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 which would raise tariffs to unbelievably high levels. This left a catastrophic impact on international trade spreading the depression worldwide.
I know you said your post will be continued, but I think that a major part of the depression was FDRs New Deal plan. Because I mean, it allowed for a lot of aid for the people who were struck during this time. Hoover left a huge burden behind him when his term was over and Roosevelt had to come in and try to clean everything up. So Im not saying that you have to obviously, but I think that FDRs New Deal plan would be a helpful thing to include in your post.
I agree with Brandi that the New Deal does have an importance to the governments response because it did open jobs for the people and government funded programs. Do you think we could possibly have another Great Depression in the near future because of the same reasons?
-The first act to be passed under Hoovers administration was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 which would raise tariffs to unbelievably high levels. This left a catastrophic impact on international trade spreading the depression worldwide.
-Hoover continued to deny that federal relief was necessary and the economic health of the country began to worsen. But, as measures continued to worsen the government along with Hoover began to step up and created a road, public building, and airport construction plan along with strengthening the banking systems. Still, the depression continued even with these efforts by the government.
FDRs response & their effects:
-Unlike President Hoover, FDR believed that relief for the nation was necessary. The three Rs- relief, recovery, and reform- also known as The New Deal became Roosevelts goal for the country.
- The New Deal was a series of programs set up to help the economy and the people affected by it recover from the Depression. These programs included:
Long term effects & the end of the Great Depression:- When Pearl Harbor took place in December of 1941, the U.S. still had not put all of their economic woes behind them. However, Roosevelt quickly took action and demanded mass production goals for the war. 60,000 warplanes, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 antiaircraft guns, and 18,000,000 tons of merchant shipping were on his list. - New industries were created to mass produce planes, ships, and other items to aid the war. Population increased with more job opportunities as the nation accumulated huge amounts of money. The war offered more than 65 million men and women with work, and more than 15 million men drafted into the armed forces. The Great Depression ended in the worldwide effort to defeat Germany, Japan, and Italy.
sorry i cleaned up the post..this is the right one.
The governments initial response: -The first act to be passed under Hoovers administration was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 which would raise tariffs to unbelievably high levels. This left a catastrophic impact on international trade spreading the depression worldwide.
-Hoover continued to deny that federal relief was necessary and the economic health of the country began to worsen. But, as measures continued to worsen the government along with Hoover began to step up and created a road, public building, and airport construction plan along with strengthening the banking systems. Still, the depression continued even with these efforts by the government.
FDRs response & their effects:
-Unlike President Hoover, FDR believed that relief for the nation was necessary. The three Rs- relief, recovery, and reform- also known as The New Deal became Roosevelts goal for the country.
- The New Deal was a series of programs set up to help the economy and the people affected by it recover from the Depression. These programs included:
Long term effects & the end of the Great Depression:
- When Pearl Harbor took place in December of 1941, the U.S. still had not put all of their economic woes behind them. However, Roosevelt quickly took action and demanded mass production goals for the war. 60,000 warplanes, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 antiaircraft guns, and 18,000,000 tons of merchant shipping were on his list. - New industries were created to mass produce planes, ships, and other items to aid the war. Population increased with more job opportunities as the nation accumulated huge amounts of money. The war offered more than 65 million men and women with work, and more than 15 million men drafted into the armed forces. The Great Depression ended in the worldwide effort to defeat Germany, Japan, and Italy.
my computers being a pain...this part goes under FDR's Response and their effects under the New Deal programs. mr.everett you can delete my other post and add this to the last one so it makes more sense if u want.
-Federal Emergency Relief Administration began a start-up fund of $500 million that went to home relief bureaus and departments of welfare to aid the needy and unemployed. -The Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps provided millions of young men with work in road building, forestry labor, and flood control. -Tennessee Valley Authority exploited great river basins resources with government dams and hydroelectric plants to help flood control, improve farm land, and assist in agricultural and industrial development. -National Recovery Administration was created to help revive industry by raising wages, and reducing work hours. -The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 provided that there would be a 44 hour work week withe time and a half for overtime. Hours would drop to 40 and wage would increase by 40 cents. Child labor also became illegal under the age of 16.
-Social Security provided pensions to the aged, benefit payments to dependent mothers, crippled children and the elderly, and unemployment insurance.
Class division ties into the Great Depression...those that were just making ends meet before the Great Depression lost basically everything once the depression hit, and those that were wealthy lost a lot too, but they still had some money. I agree with the other posts about the New Deal too, it did help out greatly during the Great Depression, allowing people to make some money to support their families. Mrs. Roosevelt helped out a lot with the New Deal, too.
The Roosevelt's had their hands full with the Great Depression. Roosevelt's New Deal was basically a government program that gave jobs to Americans. Eleanor Roosevelt was constantly recieving letters from children for clothes and food. It wasnt until WWII until the Depression started to end. By the 1950s, almost no one was unemployed and most of the US was middle class.
Do you think people saw FDR as a savior because he came up with the NEw Deal? Do you think they loved him because he came at such a hard time in America and people needed someone to look at to keep hope?
