what brought america out of the Great Depression?

Question

I understand that it is not completely known or agreed upon as to what resolved the Great Depression, but what are some of the possible factors.
Good, reputable references are very welcome.

Answer 1

MAINLY World War II. Provided thousands of jobs and lots of money.

Answer 2

My mother believed that it was WWII which brought America out of the great depression, that great destruction abroad was responsible for the wealth of the United States. I have always believed this was false.
While progress was slow and conservative throughout the 1930's, there was economic growth. From 1933 until the USA entered the war in 1941 there was a steady increase in employment, financial stability and income. Otherwise the United States would have been too weak to fight a 2 front war.
Had Hitler and the Japanese Empire begun their expansion 5 years before, it would have been unopposed by an inward-looking USA. Look at what the Japanese did to China and the Germans to Czechoslovakia.
While the war did provide jobs, it was jobs taken from providing for consumer needs. While in this present generation consumerism has reached obscene proportions, in my mother's generation providing bombs and planes meant not providing food and technology to the American people. Now we are beyond well fed, but this began in the 1950's. Now we are beyond a television in every house. Then the war meant putting off a revolution in communications for a decade.
The war delayed the natural progress to prosperity that began in small ways in the 1930's and came to fulfillment in the 1950's. I dread to think of what might had befallen the human race had there been a third world war as was feared back then, or what might yet become of us if this present war continues or inflames into a nuclear confrontation between the United States and Iran. War will bring stagnation and ruin.
Economic growth is a product of continued peace.

Answer 3

The effects of the Depression lasted, and were still around when WW2 broke out. With Europe at war and nations struggling for survival, they sent delegations to the United States to buy weapons, war materials, food and basics (the European countries had their productive populations fighting unproductive battles). So suddenly demand was right up- this had been the problem- out-of-work people equals no demand. The European countries were the most powerful in the world before 1939.

Keynes fixed some of the problem by using government projects (and governments can borrow money cheaply) to create jobs and business- but war really did it. Any old crap would be purchased by desperate Europeans, who financed it all with loans, treasure and by drawing on the future income from their empires.

With the war over, America had new infrastructure such as roads and factories, massively advanced science and medicine, and money rolling in through war debts from the countries they'd helped to win (arguably mainly to ensure these debts were repayed). Business accepted all this government interference because they had no credibility after causing the depression with their free-market fundamentalism.

And America came out of the depression but the European countries were broke- they lost their Empires and their influence. The Marshall Plan held them together but the countries directly and destructively affected by war lost heavily.

Sorry I don't have a reference because there are few sources that combine history and economics.

Answer 4

i think it is very well known that World War II ended the Great Depression.

Answer 5

World War II is what really brought us out of the depression.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

World War 2. Because of lot people went to work in war plants and lot of men and women enlisted in the armed services.

Answer 8

Franklin Roosevelt's policies, especially his New Deal is what turned the depression around, as much as the hard work and sweat of the american people.

Answer 9

The destruction by WWll of excess Capital that provokes depression,that´s what War use to do.

Answer 10

one can ramble on about what FDR did to help.....but as odd as it may seem, the real answer to what pulled America, and the world for that matter out of its depression, was WWII.