USA, 1929
The Human Cost of the Great Depression
The 1930s in the United States were marked by an extensive period of economic crisis, with a lengthy economic, financial and social impact. The decline of industrial production and gross domestic product (GDP), as well as the 1929 deflation, were caused by factors such as the stock market crash, banking panics and decreased international lending and tariffs. This period lasted from 1929 to 1940 and it was called the age of Great Depression.
Account of the human cost of this economic turndown in the USA.
The Great Depression was unprecedented in the USA history. A major consequence of the economic crisis was mass unemployment, declining wages and precariousness of employment as well as social standing threatening a majority of working profiles.
Indeed, between 1929 and 1933, the unemployment rate had increased drastically, evolving from 3,2 % to 25 % of the labour force, and touching more than 12 million people on a total population of 123 million. In addition, average weekly wages plummeted in the industrial sector, most notably by 33,6 % in the manufacturing industry between 1929 and 1932, reaching the meagre sum of 18 dollars per week by average worker. However, nor public school employees nor white-collars functionaries were spared by low salaries and postponed wages, as the educational and bureaucratic sectors were financially caught off-guard as well. It was not unusual that men set off to the streets with large placards including age, qualification and reference in desperate looking for labour.
Secondly, farmers and landowners were another category severely hit during the Great Depression. Trying to resist to the crisis, initially they attempted to expand their production, often mortgaging their farms in order to pay for equipment and seed. A series of environmental disasters, a massive drought during 8 years, dust storms and finally the Dust Bowl cumulated with the overuse of land, thus resulting in degrading the soil. This was followed by farms’ bankruptcies at national level, many of them being sold at auctions at “rock-bottom” prices because unable to survive in the ever-decreasing commodity market. As a result, farmless migrants were forced onto the roads, in departure for instance to California, to be met with the hostile nickname “Okies” deriving from Oklahoma farmers.
Dust Bowl migrants on a highway
The nation experienced a rocketing rate of poverty induced by the Great Depression: thus, the gross national product declined by 30 %. Once they lost their jobs and sources of revenue, people lost their properties or faced increasingly degraded housing conditions, as they became unable to pay rent or mortgages. Shacktowns and homeless encampment developed across the country, under the name of “Hoovervilles", in reference to the political opponents blaming President Hoover and his Republican Party for the economic bust and its disastrous social effects. For instance, in Seattle’s Hooverville, over 500 shacks were reported in 1934. Moreover, even obtaining daily food became very difficult. Frequent situations included sought after food in garbage dumps or begging for meals. Soup kitchens and breadlines held by charity organisations to provide poor families with some sort of nutrition. Cheap restauration, for instance establishments proposing 20 meals for 1 cent was very demanded, with unemployed workers waiting in extensive lines.
Segregation and contrasted social impact
Meanwhile, not all the citizens were hit in the same way. We previously mentioned the inequalities in treatment of industrial workers compared to public school or white-collars employees. Furthermore, the economic hardships extended the segregation of racial minorities to formerly secure jobs: amongst all the US communities, African American workers were the hardest hit, with the highest unemployed rate. Followed by that of Mexican workers, this unemployment rate reached in 1933 40 to 50 percent of the labour force in Chicagoan area. Extreme poverty contrasted with the opulence exhibited by upper-class society in entertainments and expenses. The high discrepancies were notably visible through grand parties, the most glamorous of which costing more than 1 million dollars, held in lavish venues or hotels, such as the Waldorf-Astoria and the Ritz. For instance, despite the crisis, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel opened in 1931 at a cost corresponding to $600 million today.
Therefore, the Great Depression of the ‘30s was characterised by a decline in the industrial production, deflation and banking bankruptcies resulting in social consequences through unemployment, sharp increases in rates of poverty and homelessness, as well as the plummeting of living standard for popular classes. Unequal impact on the social categories must also be mentioned, together with an increasing segregation of racial minorities and a growing gap with the wealthy upper class.