History+Detective+djt



The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. Life during the Great Depression was a hard, hard time. Not many people had a lot of money, many of them had to trade for the things they want and or needed. Sometimes people had a dollar a day, or less to live on. During this time period it was a long time before you got food and clothes, you had to wait in many long lines to get what you wanted. Line would go on for miles and miles, sometimes stretching to be more than two miles long. Lines today aren’t nearly as long, they are long but not as long. By 1933, unemployment  had risen from 3% to 25% of the nation’s workforce. Wages for those who still had jobs fell 42%. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was cut in half, from $103 to $55 billion. This was partly because of deflation , where prices fell 10% per year. By 1933, world trade plummeted 65% as measured in dollars and 25% in total number of units. The Depression caused many farmers to lose their farms. At the same time, years of erosion and a drought created the "Dust Bowl ” in the Midwest, where no crops could grow. Thousands of these farmers and other unemployed workers traveled to California to find work. Many ended up living as homeless “hobos” or in shantytowns called “Hoovervilles”, named after then-President Herbert Hoover.   The Dust Bowl lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains. The northern Plains were not so badly affected. In fact the agricultural devastation helped to lengthen the Depression whose effects were felt worldwide. The movement of people on the Plains was also profound. Poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought caused the Dust Bowl. Plains had been deeply plowed and planted to wheat. During the years when there was adequate rainfall, the land produced bountiful crops. But as the droughts of the early 1930s got worse, the farmers kept plowing and planting and nothing would grow. The ground cover that held the soil in place was gone. This caused massive clouds of dust to form and wash over the little towns that many people lived in. Many people died and many were seriously injured.