Life During the Great Depression
For nearly a decade, the United States was plunged into what seems like unimaginable poverty to us today. But though the 1930s brought hardship and deprivation to millions, it also re-energized the American work ethic, preparing a generation for the hardship of World War II and the subsequent rebuilding of the world during the 1950s. The Great Depression was a breaking point in American history, bringing changes on a scale not seen since the Civil War.
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Employment
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During the first year or two after the 1929 stock market crash, wages were fairly stable but unemployment was rising rapidly, from 3.14 percent in 1929 to 8.67 percent in 1930, then 15.82 percent in 1931. By 1932, nearly a quarter of the American workforce was unemployed and real wages were dropping. By 1933, even the employed workforce saw take-home pay shrink by 43 percent, reflecting decreased work hours and lower wages. Children as young as 10 left school to seek work and found it in factories at reduced wages.
Equality of the Sexes
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Men were impacted by the losses of labor far more than employed women, who worked primarily in service industries such as teaching and nursing. Women often became primary breadwinners. This led to a backlash from both society and government; both discouraged women from seeking or keeping jobs men could hold instead and encouraged women to stay home and perform labor such as canning or sewing that could stretch the family budget. The women's rights movement was mostly subsumed in the labor movement at this time and did not recover until the 1960s.
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Hollywood
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The brightest spot during the Great Depression was Hollywood. Film after film allowed Americans to escape the dreary reality of workless life. Movies became the storytelling track of America, featuring scripts with lone heroes struggling against unimaginable odds and triumphing: the little man against Washington, the G-man or marshal upholding the law against hordes of thugs, the chorus girl rising to stardom. In many ways, Hollywood's films kept Americans filled with hope even during the darkest days of the Great Depression.
Poverty, Hobos and Hoovervilles
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The Great Depression started with nearly no social safety net, and what was there consisted of patchworks sponsored by communities and states. The federal government was not involved in social welfare until Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal measures progressed to forming Social Security in 1935. As a result, families struck with hard times often packed up and moved to where they thought work existed, forming "Hoovervilles" of makeshift shacks on public land. Youth gangs, homeless and without families who could support them, rode from place to place in boxcars seeking work or any other way to survive. Okies picked up from their dust-storm afflicted farms and moved to California. Few found what they sought, and millions were homeless for at least some part of the decade.
The Wealthy
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As many as 40 percent of Americans faced no hardship during the Great Depression. A small percentage even became wealthy. Entertainers did well; Babe Ruth, James Cagney and Glenn Miller all rose from rags to riches during this time. Speculators in oil became wealthy as industries switched from steam to combustion engines and the automobile became more common. Even though Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives raised tax rates for these wealthy Americans, they were far from suffering.
Gangsters and Prohibition
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Prohibition did not end until 1935, and gangsters flourished, joining the ranks of the wealthy. Al Capone and his gang thrived on bootleg liquor. John Dillinger made his fortune robbing banks until that career was cut short by G-men in 1934. The criminal subculture was a part of the Great Depression, giving desperate young men another, albeit negative, option, and providing a culture rich in stories to writers and moviemakers.
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References
- All About History: Life During the Great Depression
- Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s
- Today's Teacher: The Great Depression - A Brief Overview
- Novelguide.com: Impact of the Great Depression on Women
- University of Houston Digital Library: Hollywood and the Great Depression
- CNN Living: 10 Folks Who Got Rich During the Great Depression
- Photo Credit George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images
