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What Was The Impact Of The Great Depression On American Society

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The effect that The Great Depression had on the American people was drastic; it drew many of them to do things they never would have done. Families were torn apart because they could not afford to feed their children, many were forced to send them away to work, or to go live with other family members. The declaration of bankruptcy was very common during this time; stock brokers in the New York Stock Exchange lost lots of money, hurting millions of Americans. Millions in poverty caused a big change in industry. Clothes were now being made to last longer, and cars, trains, and airplanes were becoming more efficient. The Great Depression from 1929 to 1939 negatively affected American society, children and economy.
Society was constantly changing …show more content…
“Nearly every one of the 751 investment trusts operating at the New York Stock Exchange was fatally wounded by the events on October 1929” (Aaseng 74). Not only did wealthy individual investors take overwhelming economic hits, but investment firms also found themselves in deep economic trouble. Later that year by mid-November some of the largest and most trustworthy investment firms in New York had declared bankruptcy. Some never got their money back. What made this crash even worse than the one before, was the fact that it severely raised the dollar amount worth. The dollar then was several times more than the one today. These people lost all of the money that they have saved all of their life. They had no choice but to start all over. Banks were beginning to struggle. Before the devastating losses of the Stock market Crash factories all over America were producing far more goods than consumers could buy. This was dramatically changed. “A substantial portion of the population, suddenly with far less money to spend than just a few weeks before, had to cut back considerably on spending, further reducing the demands for goods. Thousands could not afford to pay for what they had already purchased on credit” (Aaseng 83).The sharp drop in the amount of consumers buying hit hard in the automobile industry. Sales were collapsing just as their inventories were full. The demand for cars dropped so low that Henry Ford had no choice but to drop his prices drastically, but still they had trouble selling. Congress tried to prevent as much foreign competition as possible by placing a high tariff on their imports. However the countries that were exporting these goods reacted by also placing a high tariff on American goods coming into their own country. This made U.S products unaffordable overseas and eradicated markets that

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