The Depressing Depression
When the infamous "Black Thursday" struck Wall Street economists and leaders saw it as only a minor bump in the big scheme of things. Although, the numbers soon proved to counteract these optimists as the depression steadily worsened more and more. In the Spring of 1933, unemployment had risen from 8 million to 15 million which was roughly 1/3 of the non-farmer workforce. As well, the gross national product had decreased from 103.8 billion to 55.7 billion. The poor were hit the hardest. By 1932 in Harlem, nearly 50% of the population were unemployed. No one knew how best to respond to one of the biggest setbacks in U.S. history. Although, those that were hurt the most were more stunned by their sudden loss of wealth than truly angry. Many sank into shame and despair when they could not find jobs. The suicide rate sprung to its highest ever recorded. More than 150 per 1 million killed themselves annually from the pain and shame that was felt nationwide. Now it might not sound like much but before the Great Depression the rate was at only 120 suicides annually, a massive raise when you think about what the effect one less life might have on a man or woman's family and friends. Most of these people are forgotten however because of WWII and the post war population boom. If you can't really wrap your head around how bad this Great Depression really was just think. People truly believed that the only way to get out of their debt was to take their life. It must have been a truly dark time in U.S. history.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/suicide-and-the-economy/279961/
http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/great-depression.cfm
Thanks for the post Ryan! I think a lot of us might have some trouble understanding just how bad it must be for someone to want to end their own life, so I found some information about daily life during the Great Depression just to add some more perspective.
ReplyDelete(Keep in mind that everybody's experience during the Great Depression was different, but there were a lot of common trends.) To start off with, a lot of families lost their sources of income, and those with breadwinners who managed to keep their jobs still suffered when working hours were cut. That, in turn, affected many other aspects of their lives. A lot of children were unable to receive good educations because their local schools were being shut down due to a lack of funding. They also were unable to get a lot of food. In 1932, over 20% of children in New York were suffering from malnutrition, and the children's death rate went up as a result. Teenagers, our age or even younger, felt that they were a burden to their families and would leave home on their own in search for employment and lives of their own. This was known as "riding the rails," and some teenagers even brought along their younger siblings. Farmers had it even worse than the average American. Prices on crops dropped rapidly, and a drought that started in 1932 was making things even worse.
The middle class was the group mainly affected by the Depression. The stock market collapse and the widespread bank closures were the worst for the middle class. Even people who had worked their way through college lost their jobs, finding their degrees useless. The middle class became smaller and less significant, since many of the families found themselves moving down into lower classes.
Somewhere, sometime ago, I remember coming across this legend that ruined stock brokers after the 1929 Crash had a tendency to kill themselves by throwing themselves out of hotel windows. Supposedly, New York hotels became so wary of these people that they would ask customers whether they wanted the room for sleeping or for jumping. I researched this online and found out that although the occasional person did suicide after the market crash, most reported self-inflicted deaths were not related to the financial panic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the social and emotional consequences of the Great Depression! I found it interesting that while we see the Great Depression had such a large effect on the United States, Europe was also highly affected. Germany had 40% unemployment rate out of their 6 million population and in Britain 2.5 million were unemployed, and in some areas over 70%! It's insane to think that we thought the 2008 recession was bad, when in 1932 over half of the population was unemployed in one of the greatest industrial nations.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ryan for the great post!
ReplyDeleteI always like to compare how it was then to how it is now. Using Ryan's stat of 150 per every million of people and the fact that there were 127 million people in the US at that point, that meant that an average of 19,050 people suicided per year or approximately .0015 or .15% of the population each year.
Today there is a 100.1/1,000,000 suicide rate in the United States. This comes out to 32,258 suicides per year or approximately .00101 or.101% of the population each year.
So the depressing depression is quite a big difference to today from .15% to .10%.
I also found your point about the suicide rate very interesting. I remember learning in class that the main reason people were so depressed during the Depression was because they felt as if they were worthless to their families due to the fact they had no job, and it was impossible to get a job. Between the Depression and the Roaring 20's, it seems to me that there was a huge mood swing among the American public because their country went from the highest economic point in the country's history to the worst depression in American history.
ReplyDelete