Catoctin High School

Great Depression Essay
Final

Noah Mcelmurry
American Studies 2
Mr. Metzgar
Due: November 26, 2013

Great Depression Essay

The Great Depression was a rough time for both rich and poor, but with the programs created and the people creating them is what saved us and brought us out of the depression, but the most helpful in all of this is FDR and his hands on attack on the depression. While FDR was out there making a difference, Hoover was sitting back in his big white house chair telling people to let the depression play out and take its course. Hoover was all for the laissez faire form of government. Hoover also told the rich and big businesses to loan and donate money to small businesses in hopes that the businesses would pay their employees more and the employees would spend that money putting more money back into the circulation.
Buying on margin is a payment plan where you out a down payment on an item and make payments in regular intervals until paid off in full. This was one of the few things created to help people get what they need when they need it and pay it off slowly instead of all at once. But it made it where people wouldn’t pay it back and still have the item or get too many items to be able to pay them all back. Another thing was easy credit where the banks made it easier for the public to gain access to larger loans with lower interest rates. It allowed people to get the money that they needed when they need it but it also cause people to take out too much money at once and not be able to pay it back. These things that were created to help people get what they can afford was created because of superficial prosperity. I would have to say that superficial prosperity is best described by the quote “ Keeping up with the Jones “ the idea of people buying expensive and new things on credit to make themselves look wealthier then they really are. This was created to protect people’s dignity and make them feel better in the rough times. The Great Depression was a hard time for all and most people had to overcome hardships that were sometimes too much for them. Most of the issues revolve around money problems because after the stock market crash of September, 3rd 1929 most of America lost most of its wealth. So a lot of America had lost everything that they once had in one day. Starvation was a huge issue because most families didn’t have enough money to buy food, this could have been easily fixed by creating food banks or donating food to people. Starvation and stretching out what you have was introduced in the movie Cinderella Man. His wife in the movie was shown filling a bottle with ¼ milk in it with water to water down the milk and make it last longer. They do this because they don’t have enough money to go out and buy more. Later in the movie the man (a boxer) was asked what he was fighting for, he simply responded with “Milk”. Another issue that the general public had was a huge suicide rate in men. The stress of going home every day to see your family starving and dying right in front of you because you can’t get the money to provide for them caused them to kill themselves. Also the stress of going home to your family and telling them that all of your money is gone and you have no way of providing for them caused high suicide among men. One other problem that American people had during this time was unpaid bills, they wouldn’t have enough money to pay the general bills of the house they were sheltered in. So they would either lose heat, power, water, all of it, or be kicked out of the house. FDR was simply a beast during this time, especially during the first 100. The first 100 was the 100 day between the last president and the new president being elected. During the first 100 FDR decided to do something, he went out and created several groups, associations, acts, and others in order to help the general public and aid them through this rough time. One of the things he