Great Depression Explained

The great depression was a time of economic and social devastation that began in the United States with the Wall Street stock exchange collapse on the 29th October 1929, a day which came to be known as Black Tuesday.

The great depression facts, record that these poorest and hardest of times which were to follow, would last for many years, until the beginning of the Second World War, at which time many nations began pouring huge sums of money into the new war driven economy, eventually bringing the unprecedented worldwide slump to a end.

What mustn’t be forgotten of course is that in those days, there was no social support. If you were penniless and hungry, there was nowhere or no-one to turn to. It was under such circumstances as these that one of the most shocking depression statistics emerged, that 50% of all children did not have adequate food, shelter, clothing, or medical care.

For most people, too poor to put food on the table, the only recourse was the soup kitchen, where people queued all day long for a bowl on meager, thin, watery soup. People were reduced to scavenging amongst the rubbish bins for something, anything to eat.

Industry ground to a standstill, almost. Since people did not have money, they could not afford to purchase anything. In the absence of income from sales, companies have been forced to lay off workers and, finally, go into liquidation.

It’s African-Americans that were always first to lose their livelihoods. For those who have had the chance to stay in work, wages have been dreadfully low. Depression pictures show that the standard wage of a farm worker was $ 216 per year, while a doctor earned $ 3822.29.

At the beginning of the great depression, the President was Herbert Hoover and as it can currently be imagined, he wasn’t a popular man that being considered by many for doing too little and not managing to avoid the crisis.

The name of Hoover was taken and used for some results at the time, as settlements or shanty towns that sprang everywhere called “Hoovervilles, or the soup ” cocktail ” that starving people might make when they went to a restaurant, diverted the waitresses attention, made a soup of all that was left on the table top (tomato sauce, water, pepper, salt) and drink it, whilst her attention was still unfocused, a creation that has come to be well-known as “Hoover Soup.” A pathetic but true fact of great depression.