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Argumentative Essay On The Great Depression

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Sleepless nights, drowning debt, suicide attempts, and the inevitable fall towards unemployment. These are the things that not only make up but almost define the title “The Great Depression.” The Great Depression was a collapsing disaster. One after another, the government along with society fell to their knees. Stock markets crashed leaving most Americans bankrupt and on their own to support themselves and their families off of loose change. Jobs were as rare as ever, people went unemployed left and right. People were left to fend for themselves on the streets with no roof over their heads. This along with everything else, took a tremendous, emotional toll on society. Some even saw no other options than ending their lives. The Great Depression had an emotion drenching and ground breaking effect on the generation to go through it.

One of the first things that led to a crashing course of events was the people financial tragedies. According to one person who had lived through that time, “We weren’t hungry but we were penniless” (Hastings). The use of the word “penniless” really represented how people had zero money. This was not the type of poverty where society was not able to afford self wants. This was the type of poverty that people could barely afford their own needs and necessities. It’s very important how stressed this topic must be. Another quote says “With no dependable income we cut back on everything possible.” (Hastings). That means even the simplest things such as toothpaste and towels. This time period,1930s, was the greatest stock market crash. Stock markets crashed simply because of many economic failures, and when this happened many people were left with nothing. “Most Americans, of course, owned no stocks at all, so they were not in danger of going bankrupt overnight” (Hayes). This quote from the text was brought up to show how mostAmericans did not even own stocks because it was a perfectly common thing for someone to end up with nothing in less than 24 hours, “overnight.” Althoug h, stocks were not the only reason people had no money. Credit and banks failing had a huge part in that as well. “Banks stopped lending money. In 1930 and 1931, many banks failed, and customers lost all their

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