The topic I chose from Chapter 15 was the cycle of the Great Depression. The cycle seriously kept spiraling downwards as the 1930's went on, and it seemed as if it wasn't going to stop.
First, when the stock market crashed, people began to sell their stock. There were so many withdrawls from the banks that the banks began to fail. As banks began to fail, any type of savings that anyone had were lost. When no one had any money, they wouldn't be able to pay for the things that would support them and their family. If businesses didn't have a source of income, they were unable to pay for shipments and were unable to pay their workers. The businesses had to lay the workers off because their income wasn't enough to pay them. Without a job, no one could pay for anything, and the cycle continued.
The unemployment rate began to climb so high, that around the early 30s the unemployment rate was around 25 to 35%. The unemployment rate also didn't go below 14.3% until 1941. Here's a not so fun fact.....Toledo, Canada was hit by the Depression the hardest. Their unemployment rate was around 80%. If you think that the Depression in America was bad, Toledo had that times four.
As more and more people became poorer and poorer, the whole society began to change. Slums came about, and other poor towns like Hoovervilles. People believed that all of the bad things that were happening to them were all Hoover's fault. It wasn't entirely, but some of his mistakes did contribute to a lot of the mishap, and his theory of letting everything just work itself out on its own didn't help at all either.
Just for some source of income, some people began to sell items like apples on street corners. There were men in the streets looking for jobs, and all of these events and happenings began with the stock market crash, and the deadly cycle of the Great Depression.
Here are some pics:
Sources: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_percent_of_unemployed_during_the_Great_Depression
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm
Comments
Good job but no personal thoughts!