From the end of World War I to the end of the 1920s, the United States experienced a period of time unlike any other. During this time, America went through perhaps the most prosperous, radical, and changing period during the nations brief history. Given this, the decade that followed is perhaps still surprising to many. As fast as Americans saw it begin, the economic boom of the twenties came grinding to a halt on that fateful day in October, Black Tuesday. However, it is obvious that the great stock market crash, in which the industrial index dropped from 452 to 58 in less than three years, was not the only factor contributing to the Great Depression. More importantly, the crash was not only a cause of hardships to come, but also a result of economic trends preceding it.
Economic policies of the twenties pushed the nation into a deeper hole than it has ever seen, and many efforts during the depression only hurt America even more. One of the largest reasons for the depression was the unequal distribution of purchasing power among Americans, and the policies of the government toward this growing problem. Hardly a recent development, extreme maldistribution of American wealth had existed since the rise of industry during the late 1800s, with businessmen such as J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller. However, in the 1920s it reached a new high.
Despite protests from the working class, the administration of Calvin Coolidge made several distinct decisions that aided these trends. Laws such as The Revenue Act of 1926 reduced taxes, and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon worked to decrease these taxes even further throughout the decade. Further widening the gap was the Supreme Court, who in 1923 ruled minimum-wage laws unconstitutional. In 1929, a study done by the Brooksing Institute found an astounding 0.1% of the population sharing a combined wealth equal to the lower 42%. The effects of these travesties would hurt the U.S. in the years to come, and they came because of supply and demand.
The Essay on How the Great Depression Changed American Economy
... out of the Great Depression was Roosevelt’s New Deal. He created many important programs that aimed at providing economic relief for workers ... ideas on the American economy than as a way to firmly improve the economy. During the Great Depression, the government set ... the Social Security Act, which for the first time provided Americans with unemployment, disability, and pensions for old age. Congress ...
Ideally, if everyone possessed equal wealth, everyone could consume an equal percent of the market. However, because of the large numbers of people living in poverty, those people would consume a smaller percent of the market. To make up for this, a family making fifty times more than another family per year would have had to spend an amount that corresponded to their income, and this of course did not happen. Another reason for the economic crisis was the attitude toward agriculture displayed by the U.S. after World War I. During the war, the nations farming industry flourished, when it had the opportunity to provide to not only the United States, but also to some of the European nations in need of food.
However, immediately following the war agriculture was all but ignored. After encouraging farmers to buy more land and to increase production, the government did nothing to help reorganize an agricultural industry that was suddenly in much less demand. The result was extreme overproduction, and the more that was produced the more prices dropped. Aside from the Agricultural Credits Act, the government did little to improve the farmers position, with President Coolidge twice vetoing a bill that would have instituted a form of parity in American agriculture. Because of the lack of assistance, the situation continued to deteriorate. Soon farmers began using credit just to maintain their current production, and when they didnt earn enough money to pay off their debts, their farms were taken from them. In 1929, the avoidance of key issues such as purchasing power and agricultural overproduction caught up to the U.S. The time to keep the economy at full steam was over, and the U.S.
The Essay on Agriculture and Government-owned Lands
Using the assigned readings for Week Four, write a 50- to 75-word response to each of the following questions. Your responses will be assessed according to the accuracy of the content. Minerals 1. How do minerals affect society? 2. What is the difference between metallic and nonmetallic minerals? Provide two examples from each category and discuss their uses. Mining 1. How are minerals extracted ...
was now struggling to keep it afloat. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933 he spoke of a New Deal, which would end the Great Depression. Unfortunately, by the end of the first and second New Deals, the economic status of America remained largely unchanged. A major reason for this was the limited effectiveness of FDRs many alphabet agencies, despite the potential often displayed in them. Many programs, like the Agricultural Adjustment Act, largely excluded the small, thus increasing the gap in wealth. Other programs, such as the National Recovery Administration, lacked the enforcement needed to be effective. And as has happened throughout our history, race and sex played a major factor in ones opportunities in gaining help from one of the relief agencies, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Another reason for the continuing depression was the dependency on deficit spending by the government, and Roosevelts ignorance of this fact. In 1937, the national income had risen to an acceptable amount, and FDR saw this as an opportunity to decrease spending and balance the budget. His decision prolonged the Great Depression, and it became clear that the New Deal had done little for the nation.
