I know that what I'm about to say is an obvious statement, but have you all noticed how expensive things are nowadays? Fuel, groceries, clothes, literally everything. And anytime you want to find something cheaper from back in the day, it is now called "vintage," so it's even more expensive with that word attached.
I will start by saying that I do not follow the market; I don't read financial articles and focus on politics and the economy. I will say, though, that just as a fellow American, I have struggled the last few years to make ends meet. No matter how many hours you work or how much your bonus or raise is, it always seems like it's never-ending trying to afford the changing ways. I was in a slump recently and was thinking about all the people who are struggling, and for some reason, it made me think of the Great Depression.
My grandparents were born in The Great Depression, which is amazing! So I wanted to do some research about a little bit of what they went through growing up, and I can't even imagine what their parents went through raising children in that era. So here are just some facts I read while researching some things online--it definitely changed my perspective on how we live now after reading just a little about The Great Depression. The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1941 (when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor).
The following facts come from an article online from the FDR Presidential
Library: The "Great Depression " was a severe, worldwide economic disintegration symbolized in the United States by the stock market crash on "Black Thursday," October 24, 1929. The causes of the Great Depression varied, but the impact was visible across the country. By the time FDR was inaugurated president on March 4, 1933, the banking system had collapsed, nearly 25% of the labor force was unemployed, and prices and productivity had fallen to 1/3 of their 1929 levels. Reduced prices and reduced output resulted in lower incomes in wages, rents, dividends, and profits throughout the economy. Factories were shut down, farms and homes were lost to foreclosure, mills and mines were abandoned, and people went hungry. The resulting lower incomes meant the further inability of the people to spend or save their way out of the crisis.
At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9% of the total workforce, or 12,830,000 people, were unemployed. Although farmers technically were not counted among the unemployed, drastic drops in farm commodity prices resulted in farmers losing their lands and homes to foreclosure.
The displacement of the American workforce and farming communities caused families to split up or migrate from their homes in search of work. "Hoovervilles," or shanty towns built of packing crates, abandoned cars, and other scraps, sprung up nationwide. Residents of the Great Plains area, where the effects of the Depression were intensified by drought and dust storms, abandoned their farms and headed for California, hoping to find the "land of milk and honey." Gangs of unemployed youth whose families could no longer support them rode the rails as hobos searching for work. America's unemployed citizens were on the move, but there was no place to go that offered relief from the Great Depression. Wage income for workers lucky enough to keep their jobs fell 42.5% between 1929 and 1933.
~From the times I've talked with my grandma about her childhood (from what she can remember), she says, "Times were hard." Isn't that what we say now? "Times are hard," and it's true. They are. And I bet, 94 years from now, people will say the same thing about their lives." Times are hard." All we can do is what WE can do. And that's what I will do, which is the same thing my grandma says, "just live your life to the fullest and trust God." Amen, Grandma. Amen!
