Week 10 Reflection

The great depression was the worst economic downturn in history it was crazy it lasted from 1929 to 1939. I learned that before all this had happen the country was booming. The economy was growing, and the nation’s wealth had doubled between the years of 1920 and 1929. The great depression had begun after the stock market had crashed in October of 1929. This had sent wall street into a panic and took away millions of investors. The next couple of years everything was just going bad. Business wasn’t making enough money, people getting laid off from their jobs it was a nightmare. When it had got to its lowest point 15 million Americans was unemployed nearly half the country. Many people don’t know that during this great time when the everything was booming stock market was expanding. There had already been a decline in production and unemployment had risen. That means that stock prices where higher than they should’ve been. So instead of buying stock for something that’s worth 50$ you’ll now be paying 100$ for it. Once this began to happen people started to go in debt because they didn’t have the money to pay for it and jobs where cutting people so people would have no money. So that’s just debt just growing. While all this is going on the stock prices continued to rise and its nothing was being done. I feel as if the U.S. or the business could’ve paid people more that way, they’ll be able to afford the things and wouldn’t be in debt. Till this day the country is still trying to recover from the depression slowly but surely. I feel as if a lot could’ve been done to if not stop to at least stop it from getting so bad. One thing they did do is create something called the new deal that help recovery from the great depression. The TVA and WPA made a job program the employed 8.5 million people from 1935 to 1943. This was such a big boost it was a start but still had a long way to go. Also in 1935 the country passed a act called the social security Act and this allowed Americans with unemployed, disability and pensions for old age. The county was going in the right direction to get things back on track everything started to go back up and improve.