Boom to Bust By IsaaC Berkowitz
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
In the 1920s the government went by the Laissez Faire policy, in which the government was letting things take their own course, without interfering. The three presidents before the great depression did not like to get involved. They thought the 1920s was good so they left it how it was and said do not change something if it is fine. However in the 1930s when Franklin D. Roosevelt became president he did not go with the Laissez Faire policy. Business leaders and industrialists were affected by this. FDR proposed a new deal. The business leaders and industrialists could no longer do whatever they wanted in the 1930’s. In the 1920s bankers and stockbrokers were doing fine with great jobs and a lot of money. The government was not that involved. However in the 1930s FDR made many acts to help fix the great depression. One of those acts to help banks was to declare a national bank holiday. This helped reopen solvent banks. The banks were getting better, but the stockbrokers were on a halt because people were still afraid until ECONOMY
ECONOMY
In the 1920s the farmers did not do well at all. Before in World War 1 they did amazing because the country did not grow their own crops. When the 1920s hit there was overproduction and the farmers economy was not doing well because the prices were so low. The 1930s for farmers was an ongoing depression. Farms still got closed for foreclosure because farmers could not pay taxes. The 1930s was even worse for farmers. They had their houses destroyed and there was many people that died in the dust storms. The dust bowl hit the Midwestern and Southern plains. In fact, the dust bowl was so bad that many farmers moved to California. It was one of the biggest migrations ever. In the 1920s for bankers and stockbrokers life was perfectly good. They were living the life of luxury. They ignored the warnings of the stock market crash and almost everybody bought stock (mostly on margin). Once the stock market crashed people tried to pull their money out of the stock, but it was just too late. Stockbrokers went into deep debt because they could not collect on their debts. Many people looked toward the banks to give back their money, but they could not because of unpaid loans. Between 1930 and 1933 around 5,500 banks total closed all around the country. The economy was demolished.
Home life
Home life in the 1920s for women was getting easier with all the gadgets that the inventors made. In the 1920s women also got the right to vote so it was a good decade for women overall. However, in the 1930s women lived a very tough life. There was many cases where fathers would leave their wives and children and never come back. Also women rights were forgot about and said to be on a lot until after the great depression. Women also lived lean because their living conditions were very hard. In the city their jobs had to have been jobs that the men do not want like being a secretary. Home life for bankers and stockbrokers in the 1920s was great because they had a lot of wealth. They could buy all the new inventions that were coming out. Life in the 1930s for bankers and stockbrokers was terrible because all of the banks closed ,and nobody invested into stock. The bankers and stockbrokers were going poor and now they had to sell their things super cheap to buy food and survive.