1. Causes of the Stock Market Crash
The 1920's started out filled with hope and prosperity. Everything started with borrowing money so when the stock market crashed, all that money was gone forever. Whoever had anything invested lost all of their money in the matter of seconds. Some economists blamed the crash on the unstable and low pricing agriculture, too. One person who took the blame the most on the cause? Herbert Hoover.
2. Causes of the Great Depression
While many believe the Stock Market Crash caused the Great Depression, many people believe it didn't take any great part in the cause. People believing the stock market crash had an impact can back that up with the fact that Wall Street couldn't get back up on their feet after the crash. Another cause would be the banks failing, while many were using too much credit and borrowing money they didn't have. Since they didn't have any money, they stopped buying stuff which led to businesses failing. Unemployment then shot up because of this domino effect of events.
12. Social and Psychological Effects
During the Depression, there were many social and physiological effects! First of all, there was a rapid rise in the crime rate, resulting in a lot of theft. Food was the number one thing being stolen because people needed to put food on the table. When Americans couldn't get food it often resulted in malnutrition.
When men couldn't find a way to escape, they often turned to alcoholism or smoking. Cigar smoking took a turn though when they couldn't afford cigars. Another hard thing for people was paying bills. When women needed to pay their bills, they often turned to prostitution to make money. Often teenagers decided to "ride the rails" because they felt like burdens to their families and parents.
Another effect was the education during the Great Depression. While higher eduction became unreachable for many, high school education in males increased. This was because they wouldn't be able to get a job so they would turn to school. Public spending for education also wasn't in the budget, so there were many schools that had no choice but to shut down.
Marriage was another thing that was hit hard during the Depression. Marriage was put off because a man wanted to wait to propose until he could support a family. Although divorce rates dropped, rates of abandonment went sky high to run away from their marriages. This was referred to as "poor man's divorce." Birth rates also dropped because people couldn't afford another expense.
Although the suicide rate did rise considerably during the Great Depression, many lessons were learned during this time. Americans who survived learned to be more thrifty then their children and grandchildren were as the years went by. They also often stayed with one employer because they were so thankful to have a job.
PPersonal Thoughts: Although there were many negative effects of this time, it did make people appreciate everything a lot more. Life has changed a lot from today then from that time period. Everything tends to be based around material things now while back then they only had the people around them and nothing was gaurenteed!
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