Category: Great Depression

No jobs, no bank accounts, no dry cleaning. Why? Why didn’t these people have all this? In fact what is “The Great Depression”? To begin with, The Great Depression started in the 1930’s in the United States. This event lasted for nearly a good ten years. Shocking right? It closed thousands of banks, put a million people out of their jobs, and seared itself into the memory of those who lived through it.

First of all, the closing of Old West Side Mine meant the end of anything resembling a steady job for the next eight years. It was not so much of a matter finding a job as of filling in with odd jobs wherever and whenever you could, and most of the jobs where those you made for yourself.

Second of all, let’s talk about houses. The prices were unbelievable! $25, $100, $5, $125 you name it! They would even sell houses for like only ten cents! Wow, people were still in access with insurance such as Metropolitan. Old receipt books showed entries of 10 cents per week on one policy and 69 cents a month!

Thirdly, they reused. They didn’t have much of a choice since the people were struggling. Toothpaste, they used soda. Toilet paper, they used a catalog, newspaper or a magazine. They had no water bill, no sewer bill, no telephone bill, no car expense, no gasoline, tires, batteries, license, nothing! It was confusing to me that they don’t have a bank account. But it did make sense since they don’t really have money. They didn’t send greeting cards unless it was christmas.

Another thing, they did have an electric bill though. They would pay $1 a month in June, July, and August. They would light in the kitchen, then turn it off. Once they’ve turned it off they turn on the one in the sitting room. Then they would go to bed.

For example, to get their shoes to last, they would use old-fashioned lasts. He would stick them on soles at the dime store to patch the shoes for winter. With simple barber tools, kids would get hair cuts for only ten cents per head. When it was raining and they worked outdoors on WPA, they would cut old strips of cardboard and stuff them in the soles of their shoes which would keep their feet warm.

For instance, every cotton cloth was used as a dish cloth, wash cloth, dust cloth, etc. They would also use them as bandages incase someone was hurt. The bags from salt, flour, and cracked chicken feet were washed, bleached, and cut into dishcloths and towels. Others used them to make curtains or dresses. Every paper bag was used for lunch bags or cut and made into wrapping paper, strings were saved for later use.

However, each August, parents would find older kids to buy their books to be reused for the little children to write in. They didn’t have telephones to disconnect or even have one to start with! Altogether, I feel bad for these people, who had to live in such a hard life! What would you do if it were you? I know I sure would help them, (if I had enough money and clothes) and try to at least find a job. Or make my own! This is The Great Depression.

The Great Depression started in 1929, when people were left homeless, many people were unemployed, and banks even had to shut down. The government tried to make programs to help with this issue but they all failed and were a great waste of money. Overproduction and underconsumption made companies make too many products that people weren’t buying.

Margin buyers were a huge cause of the stock market crash. This marked the first day of the Great Depression. The farming industry was a big portion of how the U.S. made money. So when farmers started to overproduce crops and spend too much money on these said crops it also led to the economy collapsing. Businesses had to start lowering prices on goods, because of this. As more people started to put money into the stock market more people would lose tons of money. People didn’t realize how much money affected the country. When there was no more money left to put in stocks the market slowly started to decline until there was no money left. Because there was no money left, people couldn’t make money to buy the products companies were making, which led to many big companies declining. World War I was also another huge cause of the Great Depression because the U.S. gave our money to other countries for aid. The destruction caused by World War I was horrible, leading to the U.S. lending other countries money for relief. Giving billions of billions of dollars to help rebuild this destruction was another main reason for the economic crash. The Great Depression caused many struggles for the American people, people didn’t have the proper resources to have a good quality of life. All of this caused Americans to go into a frenzy, people demanded money, the money we did not have. This was not the life American people were used to. The dust bowl was a huge drought that came along with the Great Depression, The southern planes of the U.S. were affected the most. During this period African Americans suffered from racial discrimination and were forced to migrate.

People of color have been discriminated against for years and years, and this discrimination did not just up and stop in the 1930s. Sure this time was difficult for all racial groups but Black men had to give up their jobs for white men. The only jobs Black men would have obtained at this time were things like coal miners, field workers, busboys, etc. According to the Library of Congress, the unemployment rate of African Americans in 1932 was around 50%, In the south, this percentage was twofold that of the white men percentage of unemployment. A huge number of African American farmers fell under obligation to join the Migration from the rustic South to the Urban North. During this migration, roughly 1.75 Million African Americans migrated from the south to the North and West. All of this caused a great depression in the African American community, which affected them till the 1960s. Nevertheless, African Americans prospered through the Great Depression by creating organizations like the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Migrating, and voting for president Roosevelt to try and improve their rights. In 1929 The Grassroots protest was led by Chicago Whip editorial manager Joseph which led to the bringing of jobs to 2,000 African American men. The time of 1930s saw the development of African American activism that forecasted the Civil Rights Movement. For a considerable amount of time before the Great Depression, African Americans had customarily voted in favor of the republican party, in 1932 African American votes shifted to the democratic party. But President Roosevelt required the help of southern Democrats to pass his New Deal Motivation, he did not advocate for banning lynching or stopped the hostility, which kept several African Americans from casting a ballot. By 1936 around 70 percent of African Americans voted in favor of Roosevelt, even though Roosevelt helped African Americans it was not nearly enough to stop racial discrimination. Now White Americans also suffered through the Great Depression, everyone did, but it was not nearly as bad as African Americans.

In conclusion, The Great Depression was a very rough patch in American History. With the economy collapsing, Stock markets crashing, and the number of unemployed men being the highest it’s ever been, everyone struggled through the 1930s. African Americans barely managed to get through this time by creating organizations, Migrating, and voting for Roosevelt. Voting for Roosevelt was just a temporary solution as this did not solve all of the Racial discrimination and Lynching. The 1930s American south was no place for an African American man or woman

During the Economic Crash of 1819 through 1825, fewer than seven percent of the American population lived in urban areas, with the majority of the population still preferring to make their survival on family farms. At this time the Industrial Revolution was still in its infancy, and required skilled labor to fill the expanding businesses. As these skilled labor positions promised a steady wage, a stream of migrants began from the rural areas to the cities looking for permanent work. When the Great Depression of the 1930’s hit, many of those who had migrated to the urban areas for work became homeless and the first Federal programs were enacted to address poverty and affordability of housing.

In the 1850’s the population of cities continued to grow with most reporting an increasing number of vagabonds and vagrants. The growing urban populations combined with a continued shortage of adequate housing, created slum areas that were plagued with poor sanitation, overcrowding, and a frequent source of disease outbreaks. Police stations became major shelter systems for vagabonds and vagrants, and although this population declined briefly after the Civil War, it brought the issue of Homelessness to national attention and initiated further legislative acts to fund public housing for the poor.

After the Civil War, those considered homeless were referred to as “tramps” and were generally young, strong, white men who traveled the country with a love of the open road and looking for work. These tramps were viewed by society to have a faulty character, and a loss of morals that would endanger the long-held ideas of what home life should be like. A decade later and the term “Hobo” was coined in the 1880’s to describe people that road trains looking for work, and this term softened societies perception of tramps.

When World War II put the nation to work, the average homeless person was still a white male, but the average age increased to that of over 50 years old. These men were typically disabled, dependent on government assistance, and resided in cheap hotels and flop houses.

The early 1980’s brought in what is now considered the modern era of homelessness. With it’s high unemployment rate, deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, an inadequate supply of affordable housing, deep budget cuts to HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), and the emergence of HIV/AIDS. The typical homeless person of the 1980’s was less than 40 years old, living in poverty, and was likely to have medical, psychiatric and substance use disorders. For the first time, women and families were included in this group, and shelters that were used to housing only men, struggled to find ways to meet their needs.

Today homelesnees is a problem in the United States that really isn’t talked about enough. In 2018 about 550,000 people were labeled as homeless in the United States. 35% of them were unsheltered while 65% were sheltered. The Los Angeles police department estimates that it spent a minimum 53.6 million dollars in one year on interactions with people who are homeless. The bureau of sanitation 547,000 dollars in one year on the cleaning up of homeless areas. Homelssness is also a big problem in states that get below freezing in the winter as it can do serious damage to a person’s body being outside that long. The average homeless person dies at the age of 44, which is about 30 years lower than the average lifespan in the United States of America.

A theory of homelssness was introduced by Karl Marx claiming that society is always in a state of competitiveness because of scare resources. This theory states that power leads to being higher up in social order. Karl Marx also states that capitalism is the main cause of homelessness. He believes this because his theory suggests that there are two classes. One class deprives the other of their basic human needs. He also suggests that people’s shortcomings and flaws lead to homelesness.

There are many possible solutions to homlessness. One possible solution is to adequately fund mental health facilities as some homeless people have mental health issues that they can’t afford to be treated for. Another possible solution is to establish better reentry programs for criminals who are getting out of prison. Cities with high homelessness rates could also build more affordable housing for families that can not afford normally priced homes. They could also increase public housing in bigger cities or increase the number of shelters so the unsheltered population would have a place to go.

Resources

1. Whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 2 November 2019, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-State-of-Homelessness-in-America.pdf
2. V., Aucoin, T., Aucoin, P., brown241, P., Calloway, A., & Calloway, P. et al. (2018). Theories of Homelessness | Chapman Peace Studies Capstone Projects. Sites.chapman.edu. Retrieved 2 November 2019, from https://sites.chapman.edu/capstoneprojectsinpeacestudies/2018/02/15/theories-of-homelessness/
3. Solutions – National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2019). National Alliance to End Homelessness. Retrieved 2 November 2019, from https://endhomelessness.org/ending-homelessness/solutions/
4. National Academies of Sciences, a., Division, H., Practice, B., Affairs, P., Program, S., & Individuals, C. (2018). The History of Homelessness in the United States. National Academies Press (US). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519584/
5. Project, A., Project, A., & Project, A. (2019). The Impact of Homelessness on Economic Competitiveness. American Security Project. Retrieved 2 November 2019, from https://www.americansecurityproject.org/impact-homelessness-economic-competitiveness/

Franklin D. Roosevelt is famous for its many winged sayings. Perhaps the brightest of them was uttered by him during the struggle for the presidential post: “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny”. These words of the thirty-second president of the United States of America are rightfully included in samples of American oratory. But it was not ordinary rhetoric: with all its beauty and emotionality, the president’s judgment very accurately reflected the essence of the dramatic turn – an unprecedented economic and social collapse! – in the American historical development of the turn of the 20-30s and in its perception by the people of the United States.

It was a truly amazing, unique metamorphosis in the development of the United States: after all, quite recently, in the 20s, the generation of Americans who were ‘given a lot’ enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world and revel in the ‘era of prosperity’ seemed, infinite. And suddenly this economic miracle collapsed like a house of cards. It collapsed during a single year: the unprecedented global economic crisis brought its most severe blow to the United States, and its heavy heel crushed not only the poor but tens of millions of average and rich Americans.

In the same year 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stood at the head of a generation of Americans. It was one of the most tragic and unpredictable moments in American history: faith in the healing properties of private property and the market collapsed, a vacuum was formed in its place, and no one had convincing decisions guaranteeing success to break the deadlock and save the nation. The nation itself was hoping for a miracle, and the role of the Messiah was assigned to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Today, people have reasons to say that Roosevelt coped with his mission: as a result of his New Deal, American society was saved, removed from the historical impasse.

What three events led to the new course of Roosevelt? The first reason can be considered the First World War. Initially, the First World War had positive consequences for the economic development of the United States. They not only became a highly developed industrial country, but also the most powerful nation in the world. The war did not affect the productive forces of the country, the loss of labor resources was significantly less than in Europe.

The military events in Europe allowed the United States to carry out the supply of military products, food and raw materials. The value of United States exports has more than tripled. The increased cash inflows into the country’s economy were realized in the form of investments, which led to an economic boom and an even greater increase in the US share in global industrial production. When the war ended, then in 1920 the economic recovery was replaced by an economic crisis. The volume of industrial production for the year dropped sharply. The rate of decline in production in heavy industries was even higher, the number of unemployed increased significantly, and the process of ruining the middle strata of the population accelerated. A deep and destructive agrarian crisis led to the ruin of a huge number of farmers. By 1923, the country manages to overcome the crisis and begins a new economic upturn – ‘American prosperity’ on the basis of a massive renewal of fixed capital, technical re-equipment. enterprises, the growth of their energy capacity, the mechanization of production processes, the introduction of standardized and mass production, increasing the intensity of labor.

Special attention was paid to the development of the steel industry, the oil industry, the power industry, and the automotive industry became a symbol of the development of the American economy. The production of cars by three US corporations increased from 1921 to 1929 more than tripled and amounted to 4.8 million units. The activity of the stock exchange has intensified, the volume of foreign trade has increased significantly.

However, in traditional sectors of the economy – textile, footwear, shipbuilding, etc. – production was stagnant. The most unfavorable situation has developed in the agrarian sector of the economy. Increasing the productivity of agriculture on the basis of its intensification led to a sales crisis. The farms of small and medium farmers became unprofitable. The crisis in agriculture is complemented by an unfavorable price ratio for agricultural and industrial products. In 1929-1933 ‘The era of prosperity’ was replaced by the Great Depression.

The second reason can be called the Great Depression. Since the First World War was able to shake the US economy, the great depression simply killed the economy. The collapse in the United States in October 1929 is considered the beginning of the Great Depression. In the history of America and before there were economic crises, but none of them lasted more than four years. The States experienced the Great Depression three times longer than the economic upheavals of the past. Citizens, obsessed with the idea of rapid enrichment, put all their savings into corporate stocks in order to sell them more expensive. As everyone knows, demand creates supply, and the value of securities has grown exponentially. Americans were not stopped by inflated stock prices, and they, tightening their belts, continued to buy them in the hope of a good jackpot in the future. In order to purchase securities, investors actively took out loans. An agiotage with shares gave rise to a bubble, which, according to the laws of economics, sooner or later should have burst. And the time of this bubble came on the ‘Black Thursday’ of 1929, and investors in a panic began to get rid of the securities. In one day, more than 12.9 million shares were sold. Following the bankrupt shareholders, one after another, banks began to close, which were actively issuing loans to buy securities, and after an exchange panic, they admitted that they could not repay debts. For bankruptcies of financial institutions, bankruptcies of enterprises were pulled out – without the possibility of obtaining loans, factories and various organizations could not continue to exist. The result of large-scale bankruptcy of enterprises was the catastrophic increase in unemployment. From this, it can be understood that people lived in material and spiritual devastation. And he needed a strong leader who could give faith in the future.

The choice of the leader – the predecessor of Roosevelt – is the third reason for the new course in the future. Herbert Hoover – the American president who struggled with the crisis in the first three years. He proceeded from the classical liberal idea that one should not interfere in the economy – “the market will settle everything itself”. Precisely for the reason that the people remained from the inaction of Hoover, then they were able to believe in Roosevelt that way.

Now it is necessary to move on to the three most important historical legacies of the New Deal of Roosevelt. The first thing that can be said about the New Deal has led to dramatic changes in the landscape of the US political world. Roosevelt granted much greater authority to the president. Numerous groups of citizens received legal support and protection, for the government could regulate the economy through labor relations and through federal programs and agencies. This helped the following leaders to introduce new reforms, because the people were already prepared. The two main political parties in the United States have also changed thanks to the New Deal. Roosevelt helped improve the position of the working class, which in the future made the working class a loyal supporter of the democratic party.

Improving relations between the government and the nation can be called one of the greatest successes of the New Deal. Unlike his predecessor, Roosevelt was convinced that the government should intervene in the economy, as well as help people who needed it. The fact that there are currently a number of social assistance programs in the United States is the merit of the New Deal. This includes payments to elderly non-working people, insurance in the event of a job loss, assistance to people with limited opportunities, and so on.

The last one, it cannot be said that the New Deal brought the country out of the great depression, but Roosevelt definitely helped to go through the most difficult moments more gently. As a result, the New Deal, which was a direct massive invasion of the state into the sphere of social and economic relations and included significant elements of regulation, helped to mitigate the manifestations of the crisis. What is also a clear merit of the New Deal.

No doubts, Franklin D. Roosevelt had a very difficult time managing the country of that time, but it is definitely worth noting that he did it excellently and the implications of the new course in the world are still visible.

There has been a drastic change in society, technology, and social media from the 1930s until the 2000s. The 1930s was a catapult for entertainment, technology, and women’s rights in the United States; The Great Depression was going on during this time but that is one of the primary reasons that women’s rights and entertainment saw a big increase.

Radio was one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the 1930s. “millions of children turned to the radio to listen to The Lone Ranger, Featuring one of popular culture’s most enduring Western Heros.”( Charles Coletta) Many children loved listening to radio shows because during the Depression there weren’t many sources of entertainment but most families had a radio to listen to. “Social workers observed that some poor families would give up their icebox before giving up their radios.”(Beatniks Bowling), Another top-rated radio show was Amos n’ Andy. “Amos and Andy were two poor blacks who had left the South for a better life in the North. Amos was the honest, humble, and intelligent owner of the Fresh-Air Taxicab Company. Andrew “Hog” Brown was a lazy, shiftless, dim-witted schemer.”(Charles Coletta) Amos n’ Andy was a very controversial radio show. Most people felt it was very racist, others thought that it helped by portraying black people in high power like lawyers and officers.

Science was also a large part of this time, there were many technological advances that allowed people to be able to do the things they did. Sigmund Freud was a very large part of science and psychoanalysis in the ’30s. “Freud introduced-such as the role of the unconscious,

the effect of childhood experiences on adult behavior, and the operation of defense mechanisms- continue to be a source of both controversy and inspiration.”(World of Health) Thomas Edison was an inventor in the late 1800s. He is best known for his invention, the light bulb. “In 1928 he received the Congressional Gold Medal for “development and application of inventions that have revolutionized civilization in the last century.” Thomas Edison was recognized for some of his major achievements with this award.

Women’s rights were a major topic. Many people started questioning whether married women should work and what their roles were as a woman. “A 1936 poll in Fortune magazine asked, “Do you believe that married women should have a job outside the home?” Only 15 percent of the respondents approved, while 48 percent disapproved, with the remaining 37 percent giving it conditional approval.” (Judith S. Baughman) Many people believed that women who were married should not work, they believed that their role was at home with the children.

A major woman was Amelia Earhart, she was a pilot and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. During the 1930’s she decided she wanted to fly around the world, on or near the equator. “She announced her trip at a press conference in New York in February 1937 and then left from San Francisco in the early morning of March 17.”(Judith S. Baughman) Her first attempt failed due to her plane crashing on take off but she was not going to give up. She decided to try it again, “They took off on 1 June 1937 from Miami, Florida, and headed for Brazil. They flew across the Atlantic to Africa and then across the Red Sea to Arabia and on to

Karachi, Pakistan, Calcutta, and Burma.”(Judith S. Baughman). Earhart then disappeared before she finished her trip and to this day has not been found.

The 1930s was a time of women’s rights, technological advances, and radio and movies. Women were very determined to get the right and respect to work if they felt like they wanted to or if they had to. Another large part of this era was science and technology, the technological advances allowed movies and radio to become a very important aspect of everyone’s lives. Though it was during the depression people made the most of what they had.

In the 2000s Hip-hop and Rap became a big thing including artists such as Kanye, Eminem, The Black eyed peas, etc…especially as Ipods and Iphones were coming out. Watching Tv shows also became a big form of entertainment and tv shows such as Friends and Vampire Diaries became very popular. The 2000s was a time when entertainment and technology started to advance and grow, and as for women’s rights, they came a long way since the 1930s.

Technology continued to advance throughout time and as iPhones came out, people were able to take pictures on their cell phones and use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, which became very popular. People were also able to watch movies on Blu-ray Discs and read books on Amazon Kindle.

Women’s Rights have grown tremendously since the 1930s. In the past women had very little respect and were not allowed to work, their only role was to stay at home and take care of the children and do regular house duties. Over time if women were to work, they would work in factories and do things such as sewing, cooking, and cleaning but even then women would still earn less than men. In 2000, The Millennium Development Goals are developed and included a goal to promote gender equality. In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes president of Liberia, the first female elected head of state in Africa. In 2007, The first all-female UN peacekeeping unit is deployed. In 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to be awarded a Nobel Prize. All these accomplishments occurring in the 2000s helped women to gain more respect and to protect women against any kind of violence. It helped women to expand their work options and do what they enjoyed doing.

Although people went through The Great Depression in the 1930s and women had very little to no rights, it really contributed to women fighting for and gaining their rights.

During the Great Depression, Mexican Americans were deeply affected. In contrast to the employment crisis and food shortages facing all U.S. citizens, Mexicans and Mexican Americans are faced with an additional threat: deportation. When poverty ravaged the U.S., hostility to immigrant workers grew, and a campaign to repatriate immigrants to Mexico was initiated by the government. Immigrants were offered free train rides to Mexico, and some accepted, but many were either fooled or coerced into repatriation, and some U.S. citizens were deported on suspicion of being Mexican.

The Los Angeles example shows how different government entities, ranging from social workers to elected officials and police officers, worked together to create a hostile atmosphere for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans under specific economic circumstances. During the Great Depression, Los Angeles was one of the Mexican communities ‘ most popular places for repatriation, detention, and intimidation. At first, to push Mexicans south of the border, welfare authorities and private groups raised funds. The system became more aggressive when they learned that some immigrants did not want to leave (Hoffman, 1973). Hoffman argues that much of the impetus behind the repatriation initiative at the federal level began when the Hoover administration announced its intention to expel illegal immigrants.

There have been several searches and arrests, almost exclusively in immigrant communities in Mexico. More than 300 people have been interrogated and convicted in El Monte (Hoffman, 1973). The Mexican Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles was born out of these efforts to combat the detrimental effects of immigration raids on immigrants ‘ social and economic lives. There was another big search at La Placita, detaining 400 people and arresting only a handful of people. Hoffman supported Balderrama and Rodriguez’s statement of illegal immigration detention, pointing out that aliens were held ‘without representation and telegraphed for an arrest warrant after a proven case was made’ (Hoffman).

Houses were torn down without consent and families were lost. The whole field of the Dodgers stadium was home to generations of families, most of whom were Mexican Americans. The Los Angeles authorities have used eminent domain and other political machinations to steal the land from their owners after the Dodgers made the decision to abandon Brooklyn. It was extremely violent and remains that part of the living history that former and current residents of Los Angeles don’t want to remember nor acknowledge.

Semi-rural communities had emerged in the early 1900s on steep ground, mostly on the ridges between the Sulfur and Cemetery neighboring ravines. She had a grocery store, church, and elementary school of her own. Most people grow their own food and raise animals such as pigs, goats, and turkeys. Chavez Ravine was home to many Mexican-American families, red-lined and discouraged from moving to other neighborhoods. Residents of the tight-knit group also left open their doors. Outsiders often saw the city as a slum. City officials have decided that Chavez Ravine has been underused and ready for restoration, initiating a ten-year land battle. We named it ‘blighted’ and developed a plan for a massive public housing project known as Elysian Park Heights. Designed by the architects Robert E. Alexander and Richard Neutra, the project would include more than 1,000 apartments— two hundred of 13-story buildings and 160 two-story townhouses— as well as several new schools and playgrounds.

In the early 1950s, the city started trying to persuade Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. Notwithstanding intense pressure, it was opposed by many people. Residents received immediate cash payments from builders for their buildings. Further money was given to the remaining homeowners, worrying residents that they would not get a fair price if they held out. In other cases, the state used eminent domain power to seize land plots and push people out of their homes. Typically, when they did, they lowballed buyers, giving them much less money than their property’s value.

Residents of Chavez Ravine were also told that the land would be used for public housing and that the displaced persons would be able to return to housing projects. Through necessity or coercion, one way or another, through 1953, when the construction of Elysian Park Heights collapsed, most inhabitants of the three neighborhoods finally left Chavez Ravine. In 1957, the town had been a ghost town. Just 20 families still lived in Chavez Ravine, holdouts who fought to buy and regain their land from the government. In June 1958, voters approved a referendum to sell the Brooklyn Dodgers chairman, Walter O’Malley, 352 acres of land at Chavez Ravine.

Next year, the city started clearing the land for the stadium. Bulldozers and sheriff’s officers arrived on Friday, May 9, 1959, to forcefully evict the last few families in Chavez Ravine. The residents of the area called Black Friday. Sheriff’s deputies have kicked the Arechiga family home door. Movements carried the house’s furniture. The tenants were forcibly escorted. Crews finally knocked down the hill and lined the Sulfur and Cemetery ravines, destroying the Palo Verde elementary school in the process.

Overall, Mexican Americans are resilient and have endured the injustices that America serves but that doesn’t stop them from pursuing their life. The construction that operates in most of southern California is completed by Mexican Americans. The roads are because of them. About 74% of construction workers are Mexican Americans. Our fruits and vegetables are produced by Mexican Americans and Mexicans. About 70% of the top restaurants in Los Angeles are Mexican based. Despite the horrid treatment that they were given, they stood their ground and kept going. They didn’t let anyone wipe them out. They pursue their passions whether it was becoming teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. In general, Latinos will surpass any other race including the whites. Our state and the city of Los Angeles are becoming more diverse than ever. Bad events did occur in the past but we are only becoming stronger. If this were to happen today, Mexicans and Mexican Americans would win. California has grown into a loving acceptance state and no one deserved to be less treated because they are a certain race/ethnicity. This is not what Los Angeles is all about.

The beginning of this issue started after “The Great Depression” which started in the early 1930s and The Second World War which happened from 1939-1945. It affected most Canadians, most of the homeless were single men who stayed in Salvation Army housing. The word “homeless “ was not used to describe a social dilemma in Canada until the early to mid-1980s. The word that was mostly used was “transient” before “homelessness” was eventually established in the mid-1980s. According to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, mass homelessness in Canada emerged around when the government cutbacks to social housing and related programs starting in 1984. In 1993, the federal ended up building new social housing. Most Canadians were sheltered

The issues

The Great Depression – It was a worldwide social and economic shock. Millions of Canadians were left unemployed, hungry, and often homeless. This was known as the Dirty Thirties due to the drought in the prairies as well as raw material and farm exports in Canada. The depression triggered the birth of social welfare and the rise of political movements. The causes of the Great Depression were the stock market crash, drops in world commodity ties and sudden declines in economic demand and credits, rapid declines in global trade and rising unemployment, etc.

(The Great Depression)

The Second World War – Was a defining event in Canadian history transforming a quiet country into a critical player with the most struggles. Between 1939 and 1945, more than 1 million Canadian men and women served in the army full-time, and more than 43,000 were killed. This has caused the families who have lost a loved one due to war, to feel lost mentally and physically as they lost a father, son, daughter, mother, husband, wife, etc. This also had a toll on the country because the more people that came back deceased, they had to allow someone else to replace them and make sure someone was

(The WW2 in Canada)

Government – in 1960- 1970s, the federal government invested heavily in adequate housing for Canadians. The National Housing Act was amended in 1973 and 20,000 units of social housing were built every year until the 1980s. Many professionals who were involved with social and economic policy and programs in Canada such as – urban planners, academics, public health officials, and social workers – were focused on ensuring that people had access to safe, secure housing and neighborhoods. The Canadian Observatory and Homelessness has organized these situations into different groups. The groups are unsheltered, Emergency sheltered, provisionally accommodated, and at risk of homelessness.

The reasons why people become homeless are due to poverty, unemployment, shortage of affordable housing, divorce, relationship, or family breakage, family violence, addictions, stigmatization of mental health problems, discrimination based on origin, sexuality or age, physical or mental health problems, etc…

Relationship to social work, social justice, and social issues.

Historic and present-day – From the late 1980s – the small number of largely single men experiencing chronic homelessness, to a mass problem in the mid-2000s. 35,000 Canadians are homeless on a given night, and at least 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a year. Homelessness not only grew in scope but I’m complexity, as homeless populations in many Canadian communities became more diverse. Youth, families, indigenous People, newcomers, and individuals identifying as LGBTQ, all became more likely to become homeless.

How does this topic speak to issues in the profession that are important to you? –

This topic Is really important because homelessness is a big issue that keeps rising as the year goes by. The government provides places to eat, sleep, and get help with school or even work is really good and it keeps on improving. Being a social worker is not easy because you have to be understanding and have an idea of what going on with every case that is presented. This is important because a social worker is like a guardian angel who helps everyone in need.

How does this topic speak to you and your experiences?

I have never experienced being homeless and I am grateful to have a support system. But learning about the different issues that affect not just Canada but the world as well allows me to be a part of the community and give back to the ones in need. Learning about social work allows me to be more educated and learn how to take a step toward every case differently.

What does it stir in you as someone learning about the history of helping?

– this makes me want to learn more and go out and help everyone that needs help. It makes me want to learn and come out with ideas on how to give back to the community not just by learning, but by homelessness bringing everyone together and educating them in everything that we can help and make a difference to.

Who in these historical stories “knows best” On behalf of “Whom”?

I am not sure what this question is asking, but from what I think I understand, those who “know best” are those who have been through It and felt it firsthand. They are the ones who know it best and on behalf of “Whom” think it’s those who learn about it such as the social workers.

What has been the role (or not) of the helping profession as it relates to your topic? –

the role of helping professionals for this topic may serve as case managers. In this role, they assist residents in getting government benefits from the government and many more.

Referenced sites

1. https://homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/SOHC16_final_20Oct2016.pdf
2. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/social-work
3. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/homelessness-in-canada
4. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/2010/09/18/the_invention_of_homelessness.html
5. https://homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/SOHC16_final_20Oct2016.pdf
6. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/social-work
7. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/2010/09/18/the_invention_of_homelessness.html
8. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/2010/09/18/the_invention_of_homelessness.html

Hoover was the president of the United States at the time of the stock market crash. Months after the stock market crash Hoover believed that the best way to recover from the crash was to have confidence. Hoover said that the Great Depression was because of “world-wide economic conditions beyond our control”. He blamed it on that instead of problems that were occurring in the United States economy.

He thought that voluntary controls within businesses would be the most effective way to end economic troubles. Hoover held a conference at the White House and many business owners came to get a promise that would conserve rates of wages. At first it worked, and many enterprises kept their promises and raised wages, but gradually the enterprises began to reduce the wages of their employees. Hoover was known to be a very successful businessman but when it came to politics, he lacked knowledge and experience. Because of his inexperience in politics, he wasn’t very flexible when it came to compromising. Hoover had his own views and he didn’t want to budge or change them. It was very difficult for Hoover to come up with a plan to get the American people to like, and because of this, the public blames Republicans and Hoover for the economic crisis. Hoover knew that Americans were suffering so he tried to help but it really didn’t work that way. When the midterm elections came around in 1930, the Republicans went downhill. After the elections there was no more Republicans in the house. Hoover tried to protect the domestic industries from imports that were foreign, by passing the Hawley-Smoot tariff. This tariff did not work and countries in Europe raised tariffs, which made international trade slow down. These plans backfired because they didn’t support normal, everyday people who were starving but instead helped big industries and banks. Hoover didn’t want to directly give relief to the people so the government started to give out money to people without jobs. People still were not happy because it took Hoover so long to do this.

Hoover’s policies ultimately didn’t do anything for the citizens and for the country. Many of his policies cause the United States to fall into the Great Depression after Hoover didn’t do much when the stock market crashed. The economy hit an all-time low when Hoover was president. Hoover’s policies made life worse for Americans, and the unemployed did not get the help they needed. That is why the American blamed Hoover for the Great Depression, because he did nothing essential to prevent it.

What exactly is The Great Depression? When a good number of individuals hear this term, their minds immediately reverts back to the stock market crashing as the prime reason for the great depression, but there were several more reasons. First, the great depression was a catastrophic event affecting a countless number of individuals when the world was experiencing a monetary despair during the course of the nineteen thirties. Now, the reasons for the depression were the stock market crashing ninineteen twenty-nine, global taxes, rising discrimination, diminishing demand, rural flight, overtaxing stockholders, and the inaccuracy of the world’s speculation bubble. The Great Depression prompted banks to crash, joblessness to skyrocket, savings to be ripped away from individuals, emigration to soar, and homelessness to surge.

Herbert Hoover be of service as the thirty-first president of the United States from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three. Hoover was one to believe and spread false hope, but he also made many more mistakes. To aid in safeguarding American farmers from foreign rivalry, Hoover encouraged higher taxes to promote national depletion. Hoover authorized the greatest tax in the history of America, the ‘Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930’, at the peak of the international markets worsening. This tax caused other international traders to raise on the United States. Hoover was a conservative who didn’t believe in government intervening with the world’s economy. Hoover’s fear about the New Deal was the reallocation of wealth and handouts. With the great depression, Hoover believed in letting it fix itself but this did not work. When Hoover says, “would destroy the very foundation of our American system”, his meaning was

Huey Long was a senator and a Democratic who believed wealth should be redistributed from the rich to the poor. Long influenced Franklin Delano Roosevelt to urgently deal with the depression and American inequity. Huey Long’s plan to address the great depression was to share the wealth. His plan was to not allow one man to own more than fifty million dollars. His plan was for the government to give every family an estate allowance without putting them in debt. The annual income of a family should not be thirty-three percent less than the average family income. No one family’s income should be less than two thousand to twenty-five thousand dollars. No individual should be permitted to make more than six hundred thousand dollars to one million eight hundred thousand dollars. Work hours should be limited so no person can make more than the other. Military veterans would be paid what they are owed while the disabled are cared for. All children, no matter their skin color, would have equal opportunity in schools and other institutions for training and learning without being charged. In order for children to receive free learning and training, taxes would increase for the rich. Long’s plan was for every one to have enough and not for one to have more than the other preventing others from having anything. Herbert Hoover would not have approved Long’s plan because he believed in letting the government fix itself while Long believed in making everything equal or close to it.

The Great Depression was the pivotal movement for Australia, that challenged the government and society of Australia to survive. Australia was deeply affected by the great depression not just to one group of people but to every single person in the community. The Great Depression had a long-lasting impact on both men and women, rich and poor, young and old, and the government. Australia was in fact affected severely but also learnt from this dilemma that improved Australia greatly.

One of the most affected areas of the depression where the poor and people living on the outskirts of town. When the Depression hit, the poor were at their weakest. The unemployment rate skyrocketed to 50% of the poor (estimated by McQueen). Many men lost their pride and where so humiliated they went on the tracks, an estimated 30 000 people, wandering the fringes of town in search of a job. Men that were “on the tracks”, every now and then had to check into a police station so they were eligible for ‘track rations’ of food. Because of such a vast number of people were unemployed, everyone was searching for jobs which made it very rare that anyone would get a job, especially in the countryside. Sometimes this sparked many violent city riots especially from 1931 to 1932. A major contributing factor for all the unemployed citizens was the uncertainty and insecurity that hit the community like a wave ever since the depression started. People that were fortunate enough to have a job were consistently paranoid that their job would disappear overnight and as a result would lose their pride and sanity. When times were harder, families could not afford electricity, gas, or heating, so when a family member contracts an illness it has devastating consequences for the family. Most poor families lived in shanty towns (Happy Valley), houses were built from rotting furniture and even rusted car bodies. A source from the Worker’s Weekly (February 1934) exclaimed that ‘The roofs are mostly made of scrap sheets of tine rescued from the garbage tip … the floors are wet sand, smooth out and covered with bags. Fleas? Millions of’em!’. This shows the harsh reality that is faced by the poor people and what they suffered just to survive.

Within the year 1929 over 5000 banks crashed, six million workers became unemployed and by 1933 half of the population were unemployed. For the more fortunate, the wealthy, their lives didn’t change much, they grabbed at the opportunity for depression parties and the value of land dropped and they took advantage of this. With the stock-market crash, the wealthy tried to adapt to the new economic circumstances by being frugal and lived by the motto “Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without”. Many doctors and lawyers saw their income drop by forty percent; families that had once enjoyed their economic security instantly faced financial vulnerability. On the outside, they dressed properly and behaved the same way but they had an increasing financial stress looming over their heads, this had a mental toll and many families, as a result the suicide rates soared. Marriages had struggled, many couple couldn’t afford to get a divorce therefore many men abandoned their families out of embarrassment and humiliation. When men left their homes, all the women were left with their kids. Left to raise them, left to feed then all by themselves. From ‘The Working Woman’-1st September 1931 ‘As a farmer’s wife, I lead a lonely existence, striving to make the best of things and slaving for my family year after year.’ ‘I hope to be freed from household drudgery and by able to follow my natural inclinations and always do field work. This explicates the true horror that women have to face day to day because of their husband’s foolishness. Another source ‘The Working Woman- 1st February 1932’ depicts the tough everyday life that they have to survive. ‘I am unable to obtain Child Endowment. My family is ineligible for the dole. I am unable to obtain work. I cannot get the widow’s pensions, as I divorce a husband I had not seen or hear of for five years’ This illustrates that women were treated disrespectfully and unjustly.

Even before the depression started, Australia had a large debt towards England, and because Britain was our mother country, we had a duty to repay that debt. The value of commodities was steadily decreasing, and therefore our country was falling apart. The response of the government was very controversial with two very different opposing views of approaches to the problem of the economy. One of the approaches was to activate the deflationary policy, which was to balance the budget and reduce its consumer population. This policy was put forward by Sir Otto Niemeyer, whom was selected by the Scullin government in 1930. Another proposition was to enact the opposite; the inflationary policy. Which instead would increase spending to galvanise the economy, but when it was put in place by Edward Granville it failed as the commonwealth bank refused to support the ideation of enhancing the economy. In June 1931, a meeting which held all state leaders was a way to find a medium of which plan to be agreed on. The final agreement was to deploy the deflationary approach previously proposed by Niemeyer. From this approach there were major improvements starting from 1932. The value in commodities started to rise as well as unemployment started to recover. These improvements were slow and gradual, this forced the Australians to see the reality was that the Great Depression was too much of an impact to the economy and that two crucial factors that led to this uncertainty was inexperience and unreliability.

The Great Depression was an era of change and struggle. The force of the depression on Australia was both positive and negative. This era allowed the economy and government to learn from this. Improving their strategies was one advantage from the depression. But the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The poor, children, unemployed were affected deeply both physically and mentally. The Great Depression allowed Australia to embark on a resilient journey to help the economy recover from this economic disruption.