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The Great Depression. Depression & the New Deal – Chapter 25. The stock market crash of 1929 was a shock to President Hoover Before 1929, less than 4% of American workers did not have jobs One year later, 9% of the workforce was unemployed. The Great Depression.
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The Great Depression Depression & the New Deal – Chapter 25
The stock market crash of 1929 was a shock to President Hoover • Before 1929, less than 4% of American workers did not have jobs • One year later, 9% of the workforce was unemployed The Great Depression
Sales decreased – American businesses laid off workers • Letting workers go because a company cannot afford to pay them • Ex: Ford cut its workforce by 44% • By 1931 unemployment equaled 16% • Hoover encourages people to be patient & believed the depression would end with time The Great Depression
Think back to the Roaring Twenties Unit • What did Hoover feel the role of government in business was? • Knowing this, how do you think he reacts to the depression originally? THINKING SLIDE
Hoover’s plan: • Let state and local governments help people • Let charities and private groups help people • Hoover believes America is strong because Americans take responsibility for their own lives • People blame Hoover for the depression The Great Depression
Unable to make loan payments to banks, people lose their homes • Hoovervilles • People build cardboard homes or tar paper shackswith no lights, heat, water The Great Depression
Stock Market Crash • Overproduction • Companies produce goods faster than consumers could buy them • As production slows, workers are laid off • Purchases on credit • When people lost their jobs they could not repay loans • Banks go out of business What Caused the Great Depression?
Many countries were still in debt to the U.S. from WWI • High tariffs were placed on American goods What Caused the Great Depression?
Farmers struggle financially after WWI • Prices keep going down • To grow more crops, farmers plow up the Great Plains • This area is hit by drought in the 1930’s • Wind swept over the dry ground creating huge dust storms • It is an economic and environmental disaster The Dust Bowl
People lived in fear of the future • Businesses were afraid to make new investments • Bread Lines – people stand in line for free food • People slept in subways, parks, empty warehouses • People took whatever job they could get Americans Lost Confidence
Black workers lose their jobs to unemployed white workers • “Last hired first fired” • Sharecroppers lose their jobs as white farm owners income declines • Northern factories close and women and blacks lose their jobs • Married women are fired so that unemployed married men could work Impact on African Americans and Women