the great depression

March 8, 2008
APUS
The Great Depression Led to Social Problems in America


The 1930’s Great Depression was a miserable time period for America. This was the time period after World War I, and the first time that America experienced major debt. There were several causes of the Great Depression; many of them were due to bad political decisions. Two of which were the Fordney- McCumber and Hawley- Smoot Tariffs. Andrew Mellon (who was secretary of the Treasury at the time) introduced the Fordney- McCumber Tariff in 1922. This caused taxes on agricultural, chemical, and metal imports to rise. During the war U.S. gave financial aid to the Allies and in the 1920’s demanded repayment. The Fordney- McCumber Tariff made it so the Allies could not sell any thing for which there was a given demand on. Therefore the Allies were deeper in debt and could not repay their debt to the U.S. In 1930 Congress passed the highest tariff in the nation’s history as a way to protect American industry and manufacturing from foreign competition. This was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff. The Hawley- Smoot Tariff raised U.S. tariffs on over twenty thousand imported goods, and really worsened The Great Depression. Another cause of The Great Depression was technology. Due to America still trying to stay competitive in production, they created machines that made where manual labor was no longer needed. For example, a job that could have taken seven workers to do, now only needed one, so the other six workers are know out of a job. This also led to under consumption. Under consumption was basically that many people were not making as much money as they did before the war and before technology, and even though the machines were producing a large amount of product, people were not able to purchase them because the did not have the money. Even though many people were living in poverty, there was still a small percent that was not. The problem with this was that they controlled most of the nation’s wealth, and did it in a way that kept them being rich at the expense of the rest of the nation. Someone who was responsible for doing this was Andrew Mellon, who secured tax deductions from congress for those who were considered to be rich. Due to all the things mentioned above, America experienced on of the worst time periods in history, the 1930’s Great Depression.
Many American families were affected by The Great Depression. The Great Depression altered the American social fabric in the 1930’s in different ways. One social effect was that many people were laid off of there jobs. Also a lot of living arrangements changed. Another way was that it caused migration. America would not be relieved from the Great Depression until World War II.
Technology really harmed the workers of America during the Great Depression. This was because it could work at a faster pace than humans; therefore business owners replaced their workers with machines. This was the same for farmers. Farmers started to use technology to grow their crops at a faster pace, nut this ended up hurting them in the long run. There was a serious case of under consumption because people could not afford to buy things any more. Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to help with his New Deal programs which aimed at the three R’s, reform recovery and relief. Long- range goals were what reform was for. And then it was short- range goals for relief and immediate recovery.
As a result of the Great Depression the unemployment rate increased to about 1.8 million. Due to this people were forced to live in harsh conditions. Many were homeless, with out food and work. Others who could afford it lived in Soup Kitchens. Soups Kitchens were very small and crowed. For example, a soup kitchen could be like a two flat building where each family house would be a bedroom out of the apartment. There was a community bath room and kitchen. Often people who lived in Soup Kitchens still had a hard time keeping up with rent and other bills.
Migration took place because of the harsh living conditions during the time of the Great Depression. The 1920’s in America was the time of the Harlem Renaissance. During this time many people made a living off of being artist, some visual another’s verbal. But when the Great Depression they could no longer afford to live in America so many of them migrated to Europe. Another migration that took place was due to the “Dust Bowl”. This was a drought that accrued in late 1933 that stretched from eastern Colorado to western Missouri. Many of the residents of these places migrated to California because their crops and land had become all dried up.
The Great Depression of the 1930’s changed social life in America. This was because America was experiencing its first time of being in major debt. Some of the ways that the social life was altered was because of technology. This made it where many American workers were laid off from their jobs. Because many of them were laid off they were forced to live in harsh conditions. Others migrated as a result of the Depression. America would not gain relief from the Great Depression until World War II, also known as the second great migration. This was the second great migration because when a lot of the Caucasian people went to fight in the war, African American migrated from the south to get the jobs that they left.