The Age of Anxiety

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed was a really tough thing to learn about because it is saddening to think of the heartache and turmoil that it caused. People were jumping out of buildings committing suicide, begging for food and money and starving to death. There were no jobs available, leaving over 38% of Americans unemployed which hurt the economy even more because people were not spending money. This trend in the economy was not just in America, it spread throughout the world and damaged the lives of millions of people. It was not until 1933 that the economy started to come back to health due to the work of FDR and his social programs and the eventual entry into WWII. I think that this fall in the economy and in the morale of humans helped to lead America to be one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. The Great Depression resembles the current recession we are in and how the economy just went down hill. Also, the current unemployment status is in the double digits which is causing a very low morale in people. Granted the recession is not as severe as the Great Depression but it still has similar characteristics.