Lack of Public Relief
- People turned to soup kitchens, bread lines and shelters for food and warmth
- Before 1933 only local government relief agencies offered public assistance
- Many believed that it was the person’s fault if they were poor ( too much credit)
- Public relief would keep them from looking for jobs
- People suffered from malnutrition, tuberculosis, typhoid, and dysentary
Bank Runs
- Throughout the 1920s, banks made many risky loans
- Often loaned more money than they had
- The Federal Reserve Bank should have stepped in…
- Often loaned more money than they had
- 9 million savings accounts were lost
- No FDIC = no chance in getting your money back.
Bank Runs
- A phenomenon in which many of a bank’s depositor’s attempt to withdraw their money from the bank because they fear the bank will fail.
- “Contagious”! Word spreads quickly that banks are not giving people their money and more go to the bank trying to get their money as well.
Hoovervilles
- As unemployment rates increased so did the amount of foreclosures and homelessness
- Hoovervilles were shanty towns of unemployed Americans
- People made houses of whatever scrap that could find
- Cardboard, metal and wooden scraps, etc.
More people began leaving the United States than entering it during the Great Depression
- Many Americans looked to Communism as a possible solution.
- The Great Depression SEEMED to be over in the Soviet Union and many Americans moved to their to find jobs.