The Great Depression 200109

      The depression was a horrible thing in our history. If you think it could never happen again, look to the end of this post and read the screenshot there. Most of everything that caused the great depression back then is up and running in our government this very day.

      One would have to be nearly as old as I am to to have parents and grandparents that lived through the great depression. The depression lasted from 1929 to 1937, but many historians agree it lasted until the outbreak of world war two. Families lost the bread winner because there were no jobs. Once the soles of their shoes wore out they were replaced with cardboard. There were soup kitchens all over the country to feed people. The banks closed and people lost their entire life savings. Families survived by borrowing against the equity of their life insurance policies. Once wealthy men were so despondent they jumped out of high rise buildings to their death. Factory workers, office workers, laborers were all out of work and they filled the soup kitchens. Families across the nation lost their homes or were evicted from rental properties, that led to the creation of the so called Hoovervilles named after the then president Hoover in office at the beginning of the depression. Hoovervilles were cardboard or shanties built from scrap lumber and scrap sheet metals. They were usually down by rivers so people had a place to get water and have an occasional bath.

      The depression shaped people's lives back then and some of their thinking has come through to Joyce and my thinking. We know what happened and it is always on our mind that it could happen again. If it wasn't for swift government action in 2008 we would have had a world-wide depression. The U.S. could have another depression in short order and that could trigger a world-wide depression.

      There were multiple causes that brought about the 1929 depression. Here are some of them:



      There is greater detail on this link.

Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2026 and beyond.