Trying to imagine living life during the Great Depression is not even fathomable to me. The technological lifestyle of smartphones and computers that people have today may seem like heaven to the people of the 1930’s. The amount of economic struggle and social stress experienced by the average person during these times was terrible. Let’s take a look at how the Great Depression impacted the people of our nation.
There was a constant struggle to uphold a family during this time. From 1929 to 1933, the child birth rate dropped 15%. More children meant more money going out of adult’s pockets, so the Great Depression created a sense of “downsizing” on the family size. With that, people were also getting married less; it saw a decrease of 22% during the same time period. Many Americans were now experiencing new situations they were not accustomed to such as poverty and even homelessness. Whether you were middle class, working class, urban, or rural, the Great Depression devastated and affected you either way. Unemployment was an all time high at nearly 25% employed and thus many lost their main source of income. For those lucky enough to have jobs during this time, their hours and pay were still reduced. During this period, more than half of the farmers in the nation made less than $1000 a year. Factory workers earned $1449 a year and barely had enough for food and home expenses. Prices increased too rapidly and items were not affordable by the average American income. This ultimately resulted in strikes that would end via police brutality. Overall, there was no longer this sense of security and enjoyment that was booming during the 1920’s and everyone, whatever social or ethnic group you belonged, proved to be affected by the Great Depression.
Source:
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/everyday_life.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment