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The Effects of the Great Depression The Great Depression was a horrible event that took place almost 100 years ago. It was a time in our society when people had no money and no food. Everyone was losing their jobs because the companies couldn’t afford to pay them and stay in business at the same time. After the Stock Market crashed and the economy went downhill, a lot of changes were made within the government to make sure that nothing like this would ever happen again. This period in time was a sad period, but there were a lot of good things that happened and took place because of it.
In order to really understand all the effects that happened after the Great Depression, you truly needed to live during the time period, but we can’t do that. The Great Depression brought the worst out of several million Americans. The crime rate sky rocketed, as millions of Americans started to lose their jobs and became unemployed. People had to steal from others just to put food on the table for their families. Also, besides the crime rates going up, the suicide rates rose along with prostitution rates. Many Americans didn’t want to go through this sad and depressing time, so they took the easy way out of things and committed suicide.
While women who were jobless needed money to support their family, they would look towards prostitution. It was an easy way of making money, in which men would pay them for pleasure. Not only did those things take place, but also alcoholism increased in America. Several Americans were looking for the easy way out, in which they would forget what was happening in the economy and in their lives. The effect of the Great Depression on the lives of American citizens was very dramatic. Millions of Americans became homeless during this time, in which they had nowhere to go. Throughout the United States, Americans created towns called Hoovervilles.
Hoovervilles was a catch phrase that meant shanty towns. So Americans had to improvise with what they had available to them, such as scraps, abandoned cars and packing crates. With these materials, people created shelters that would protect them from the bad weather and the freezing winters. As their lives were filled with sadness and no hope, they would soon learn that all of that was about to change for them. As the 1932 Presidential elections were coming up, the citizens had to choose the right person to lead them out of the Great Depression. In November of 1932, the United States held a Presidential Election that was crucial to America.
The voting was a one sided outcome, as Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election by a landslide over his opponent Herbert Hoover. In his acceptance speech in 1932 when he was a Democratic Party nominee for running president, he made a promise to the citizens of America that there would be a “new deal for the American people. ” He was determined to keep his promise to the citizens of America, that a new deal was coming. He would later keep that promise and would eventually change the economy for the better. Roosevelt’s “New Deal Programs” were based on helping the economic problems in several different ways.
The programs that he designed were to help; “federal assistance for people who had lost their jobs, houses, savings, and livelihoods”, “job creation for the unemployed through massive public works projects”, “agricultural assistance for troubled farmers”, “manufacturing assistance for troubled industries”, “stricter banking regulations to prevent bank failures”, “creation of the FDIC to protect bank customer’s deposits” and “investment in the banking system to free up credit” (FDR New Deal During The Great Depression”). Massive work projects were created, so that Americans were able to have a job and earn money for their families.
During these work projects, highways, bridges and national parks were built during the Great Depression and most of them still stand till this very day. Roosevelt also created a program called the Social Security Act. The Social Security Act is still in effect in today’s society. This act was created to make a system, which would allow “pensions for old age workers, survivor’s benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, and for the blind and physical disabled” (New Deal Achievements).
This act gave many Americans hope that the economy was changing for the better and that the Americans felt much more secure financially. During this time banks were going under and were closing their doors. It is said that by 1933, of the nation’s 25,000 banks, a total of 11,000 of them had disappeared and closed. With the economy in chaos and the cause of the stock market, thousands of people had withdrawn their deposits from the bank. By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, there were several banks that closed and the worse part of it all is that shortly after FDR took office, a third banking panic was being threatened.
Meaning that more banks were soon on the rise of closing. FDR set up a “flagging banking system”, in which he announced that there would be a three-day bank holiday, that would cause a stop to the run on the banks by halting all of their financial transactions. After those three days were over, all the banks had re-opened and a total of almost 1,000 banks had been saved because of this. Shortly after this, on January 1, 1934 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was established.
This would allow a certain amount of people’s money to not be lost when a crisis happened, but that didn’t stop the crime rate to sky rocket. As the economy was coming out of the depression or was about to overcome it, World War 2 started up. At first the United States didn’t want to join the war, because they thought that their allies could win the war by themselves. But when the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, they did not delay into entering the war. Now being involved in World War 2, this caused millions of jobs to be opened up to the citizens of America.
Tons of factories were re-opening and new ones were opening also. The unemployment percentage decreased significantly once we entered the war. Also, the government established the draft in which, if your number came up you had to go to war. Many millions of Americans signed up on their own free will, just to have a job, so that they could support their families back home. Some people say that by the time that World War 2 started, the United States was already out of the Great Depression, while others strongly disagree with that statement.
Although the war opened up many jobs for Americans, the American didn’t spend the money that they received. They were so worried that there could be other crises that could potentially happen again, that they wanted to be prepared, just in case it happened again. The Great Depression was a time of sadness and a time that we hope will never happen again. As many Americans become homeless and jobless, this led to the increase of crime and suicide rates. But with the 1932 Presidential Election this would change everything for the United States and its future.
As the citizens of the United Stated elected Franklin D. Roosevelt, he took that chance and made it worth it for the citizens. As Franklin D. Roosevelt led the economy out of depression, gave millions of people jobs and restored hope back into Americans, it led to him to get re-elected a total of 4 terms. Sadly, during his fourth term in office, he became very ill and passed away. But he will go down as one of the best Presidents of all time. Works Citied Croft Communications, Inc. Bank Failures During the Great Depression. 011. 17 September 2011 <http://www. thegreatdepressioncauses. com/banks. html>. Croft Communications, Inc. Effects of the Great Depression. 2011. 11 September 2011 <http://www. thegreatdepressioncauses. com/effects. html>. ???. FDR New Deal During the Great Depression. 2011. 2011 17 September <http://www. thegreatdepressioncauses. com/fdr-new-deal. html>. Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center, Inc. New Deal Achievements. 2007. 11 September 2011 <http://www. fdrheritage. org/new_deal. htm>.