Describing the human cost of the Great Depression
The Great Depression, which represents the period of a long and severe recession, from 1929 to 1939, in an economy or a market, because of an agricultural and industrial overproduction and a bank credit crises linked to the end of the reconstruction after the First World War; was the most disastrous and destructive economic event for the population in the 1930’s.
Picture of a father who lost everything and is looking for any job to survive and feed his family.
To begin with, because of the Great Depression, everyone in America had to cut off a lot of expenses due to unemployment In 1933, unemployment was at 25 percent nationwide and wages decreased. People couldn’t afford to buy food anymore and for example, lots of children were seen queuing for a bowl of soup. There were also soup kitchens organized by charities to help. People would get so hungry sometimes that they would start to feed themselves from dumps every day. Their last hope was getting a bit of food from garbage even with some bugs on it or a bit rotten, simply not to die of hunger. Restaurants became so-called “penny restaurants” and were in operation in cities across the United States. The aim of the scheme was to allow poor people to maintain their self-respect and reduce the number of beggars. At this type of establishment, every item cost a penny. Where miserable hundreds waited hours for free food, were an all-too-common sight during the Depression penny restaurants were the dignified alternative. They always appeared during times of financial trouble, but they reached their greatest prominence during the Great Depression. A whole new cuisine of make-do was developing across the country.
By 1932, millions of Americans, instead of having a normal rent-paying housing market, started living in slums or for example, what were called "Hooverville". A Hooverville was a shanty town, built during the Great Depression by the homeless who had no more money and couldn’t afford anything. These towns were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. The shacks were tiny, poorly built, and didn't have bathrooms. They weren't very warm during the winter and often didn't keep out the rain. The sanitary conditions of the towns were very bad and many times the people didn't have access to clean drinking water. “In Seattle by 1934 nearly 500 self-built one-room domiciles were "scattered over the terrain in insane disorder," according to a witness of the time. Most were unemployed labourers and timber workers, few of whom had held any jobs in the previous two years. By 1937, close to 1,000 people lived in the Hooverville towns.” In addition, unemployed workers had drastically gone up, from 1550 people in 1920 to 12830 people in 1933. This was a huge difference, and everybody was getting desperate to find a job; so much so that people would parade in the streets with a cardboard sign on them with written on it that they would like to have a decent job, their age, what they can do. Because of the economical crisis going on, companies couldn’t pay their workers properly, so salaries also crashed down remarkably. From 1920 to 1932, in manufacturing the wages went down by 33.6%, into Bituminous Coal of 44.9%, and in Metalliferous Mining 38.2%.
Finally, during the Great Depression, farmers, ranchers and families suffered. Particularly during the slowdown in economic activity 1921, when the prosperity went down. Agricultures and farmers were trying to gain back their loss with their economies, by expanding their productions to take full advantage of land and machinery and by planting more and more wheat, which after a long time had repercussions to soil, to sell it even though the prices of the products continued to drop until 1929 for example, when wheat went from 2 dollars to 40 cents per bushel which began to really be unlivable.
On top of that, due to a series of droughts combined with non-sustainable agricultural practices, enormous dust storms and huge chocking clouds invaded the place and led to famine, diseases and deaths related to breathing dust called “dust pneumonia”. It also also destroyed everything in its path like for example, farms, which caused many families to walked around the country and search for a new job. Moreover, land of agriculture went bust because of overproduction, overuse of land and harsh weather, which made this event to be called “The Dust Bowl”. It had many consequences as dying livestock or no more crops which meant that they couldn’t sell that much anymore and so didn’t produce any money.