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How Did The Great Depression Affect America

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The Great Depression was an awful time for a majority of the American population and its economy. The Great Depression was caused by a dramatic uneven distribution in wealth, which caused consumption issues. 1% of America’s population was receiving 15% of the nation’s income. This lead to the stock market crash of 1929, which sent the economy into the age of depression. This depression had negative effects on a large majority of the US population. The life of an average American began to look much worse than it was before the depression. Society as a whole began to change in order to attempt to cope with the Great Depression. And lastly, the economy also took a toll for the worse. When observing the effects of the Great Depression, the average …show more content…

The national income dropped to less than half of what it was before in 1929 ($88B to $40B). Many banks began to realize that they did not have as much money as they thought they did, and many closed their doors. This meant that the people who had savings accounts no longer did anymore, and a lot of ‘money’ was lost. Philadelphia could only supply unemployed families with $5.50 a week. This is a quite a bit considering Detroit could only provide 60 cents a week until the whole city completely ran out of money. This is ultimately what led to the devastation of many …show more content…

The New Deal created new programs to provide relief to struggling families. Many of these programs still exist and still help people who are struggling in today’s economy. A National Pension System was created to help people out financially who could no longer provide for themselves. This system is still here today, for we have a Social Security system that gives out these pensions. This system still functions as it did when it first began, funded by the taxes of working Americans. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was also created during the New Deal, in 1933, and is still in effect today. Because banks closing down was a major issue during the depression, the FDIC was created for the purpose to insure bank deposits from up to $100,000. Today, it has changed slightly, and now insures deposits up to

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