The Great Depression

As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath:

"And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."

(http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm)

The Great Depression started in 1930 when president Hoover was president, and as it was said in The Progressive Era Lecture, he’s strategy  “was to do nothing basically and let the market work itself out.” But that attitude only helped the Depression intensify, and become harder to defy as it only ended around 1939. The causes of the Great Depression are still being debated, but one fact everyone agrees with is that there were several causes that happened simultaneously. It's interesting that the causes that many point out, seems to be very similar to the causes that caused the economic crisis of the moment. Causes that are usually listed are: over production, over spending, bank failure, and the stock market crashing.

 The Great Depression caused masses of people to loose all of their assets, and that included the very wealthy, as well as the poorest of the poor. Many companies went out of business, and a great number of people lost their jobs. There were an overwhelming mass of people that were left without food, housing and medical care and even schools. Many of these unfortunate people were children and elderly.

Droughts and dust storms became much worse during the Great Depression, forcing farmer to abandon their land and try to find work in other parts of the country, which was already overwhelmed with people. In response to this devastating crisis, Franklin D. Roosevelt had to create new social institutions, and change American politics in order to make the Federal State take more responsibilities to help the people in need.

The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis America has seeing, and we were all very scared that it was going to happen again in 2009. There is always going to be debates for the causes and the way President Obama handle this last crisis, but it seems that now at east we know it is not going to be another Great Depression. The economics of the country it is not in good shape though, and it is sad that America did not learn with its mistake, since the causes of The Great Depression look a lot similar to this last crisis’. We should be getting smarter and learn with history, since that is a way to honor the people who died and suffer through those horrible times. Let a Great Depression never happen again.