The Great Depression 5
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn ever in U.S. History, and one which extended to practically the entire industrialized world. The Depression began late in 1929 and lasted for about ten years. Many economists have their theories as to what brought all of this about. It is generally accepted that the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part that same decade. The disparity in the distribution of wealth in the 1920's existed on many levels. Money was distributed unequally between the rich and the middle-class, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the U.S. and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. The excessive speculation in the late 1920's kept the stock market artificially high, and eventually lead to huge market crashes. These market crashes, combined with the maldistribution of wealth, caused the American economy to capsize. Lives and livelihoods of the lower economic groups were devastated. Politicians were no longer admired and the strain between the races was high. Through it all,
The federal government also contributed to the gap between the rich and middle-class. The Roaring Twenties was an era dominated by Republican presidents: Warren Harding (1920-1923), Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) and Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). Under their conservative economic philosophy of laissez-faire ("leave it alone"), markets were allowed to operate without government interference. Taxes and regulation were slashed dramatically, monopolies were allowed to form and inequality of wealth and income reached record levels. The country was on the conservative's preferred gold standard, and the Federal Reserve was not allowed to change the money supply. The fact that the Great Depression began in 1929 on the Republicans' watch was and still is a great embarrassment to conservative economists. Many try to lay the blame of the worsening of the Depression on Hoover, for supposedly betraying the laissez-faire philosophy. In his defense, however, almost all of Hoover's government action occurred long after the worst of the Depression had hit. In fact, he was voted out of office for doing "too little too late." That set the stage for the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt who defeated Hoover. FDR promised the nation a "New Deal" and instituted many programs known as the alphabet soup programs designed to strengthen the economy and raise the spirits of the country. The "roaring twenties" was an era when our country prospered tremendously. The nation's total income rose from $74.3 billion in 1923 to $89 billion in 1929. The rewards of the "Coolidge Prosperity" of the 1920's were not shared evenly among all Americans, however. The top 0.1% of Americans had a combined income equal to the bottom 42%! The same top 0.1% of Americans in 1929 controlled 34% of all savings, while 80%
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1204
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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