What was the great depression like?

Question

Was is really that bad?

Answer 1

the GD was during the 1930s it came rite after the market crashed in october 1929, called black monday. The president during this time was Hoover, he belived in rugged individualism so he really didnt do much to help the people. All the agencies that he did set up did crap. So it was really crapy time period, everyone who comes from this time period, really distrusts banks and big companies, because they were to blame for all the "depression." There were many soup kitchens set up and and relif agencies, but no use even when FDR came in he still falied to decrease the unempolyment rate, but did manage to reform the banks during a banking "holiday". The deppresion completly done when WW2 started and ppl went into the millatary, even women this time. So basically it was the crapiest period in US history, guess thats y its called the GD.

Answer 2

Yabhi70 has got it mostly right, but spins it a bit. Not only Hoover, but Americans themselves believed that a man in trouble must rely on himself, not the government; after all, the 1920s were only three generations since pioneers had gone west to settle California!

Nevertheless: men committed suicide, so that their surviving families could receive life insurance to live on; men left home to ride the rails as bums, so that their families were eligible for a small government subsidy; the WPA built most of our National Parks, and was work much sought after; there were fearsome droughts at this time, creating the Dust Bowl, causing mass migrations from Oklahoma and Texas to California, flooding the job market there.

There is no comparison between life then, and life now; in the Great Depression, there were few governmental programs to provide any manner of support; there was no FDIC to insure money held by banks, and when the market crashed, the banks also failed, and people lost everything they had saved. Because there was no frozen food (really!), and few canned goods, foodstuffs that could be distributed were in short supply; due to the lack of Interstate highways (remember, they were built later), relief supplies couldn't be shipped very far or easily. People relied on what they could manage to get or produce locally.

It was every bit as bad as you can imagine. People starved. Babies died of malnutrition; there was no free medical care, and so sick people doctored themselves as best they could. America... indeed, all the world... was a tougher place, then. We lived in a time of no central heat; we used coal, when we could afford it. There was no air conditioning at any price. Most homes did not have a phone. A car was a luxury, and never trusted to the youngsters. Imagine all this, and with the financial system bankrupt and broken, too!

Since that time, much has improved, but some things have been lost in the transition: Americans have lost the passion for self-reliance that was once our defining characteristic. Although we live in a more secure world, I often long for living on the knife's edge, as we all once did. It made us better people.

Answer 3

You dumb*ss, when have you ever had to have rationing books because families were only allowed a certain amount of meat?
The fact that the government was basically completely out of money and the citizens had to invest their own money into the country (Bonds) doesn't tell it "it was that bad"?
The fact that the stock market completely crashed and people were horrified that they couldn't get their money out of the bank doens't qualify as bad?
Go sit you *ss in front of your plasma with your PSP and *itch about your AC not being cold enough.

Answer 4

No worse than it is now.
no one wants to go to work.
jobs are hard to find.
men take all the jobs.
women have lower paying jobs
women need to make ends meet cuz dad don't bring home enough bacon.
the halves still have and the halve nots still want

Answer 5

probably depressing. I could be wrong, but isn't that why it's called the great depression? ;)

Answer 6

Everyone walked around with their heads down.

Answer 7

really depressing

Answer 8

yes it was. search on google for more info.

Answer 9

is this a homework question lol