Disproving predictions that the economy would rebound quickly, the Great Depression was prolonged and pervasive. The banking system collapsed. Factories were overburdened with unsold merchandise. Prices plummeted. These economic problems had devastating effects on individuals. Millions lost their life savings when financial institutions failed. Unemployment reached 25% here in the United States. Urban families and those already living in poverty were particularly hard hit by the economic crisis. As the Depression paralyzed the American cities, Congress began investigating the dire conditions facing many urban families. In the document I would like you to read, Dorothy Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Welfare Society of Philadelphia, tells the Senate Subcommittee on Unemployment Relief about the difficulties facing the urban poor. You can portions of the testimony by clicking here.After reading Kahn’s testimony, I would like you to consider and discuss the following: How did the Depression affect many families in Philadelphia? How did people respond to their economic troubles? How did the New Deal attempt to resolve the problems that Kahn describes? Your thoughts…
17 comments:
People in Philadelphia were being evicted ffrom their houses because they were unable to pay rent on their space. After being evicted the people would sell their belongings. The men of the family are walking around begging for work willing to do anything.. they seem helpless.
People could no longer afford their rents and were evicted from homes. Many neighbors are kind enough to take families in and let them sleep on chairs, the floor, and many of the people ask for boxes to sleep in. Thousands of men wander around looking for jobs that do not exist. Even when the older members of the family could not receive jobs, the younger members were unemployed as well, so no one could earn money.
With Roosevelt's New Deal, jobs would be created to supply these many people.
It seems like many families are turning to each otehr when they can no longer pay their rent or live in their house. They live together or ask if they can live rent free for a while, which is described as a burden in istelf from the fear of relying totally on someone else for a place to live. I thought it was interesting how she brought up the fact that not only can parents not work, but teenagers can't either and thus are not getting any working experience for the future. Rossevelt's new deal created public works prohects to give ppl jobs. Spend money to give to the ppl and then get it back when they start spending.
this sounds so much like todays problems.
people cant pay for their houses so they are being taken from them. neighbors are starting to take in other families and have them live with them.
what seemed to be happening though was that younger people were getting the available jobs. this could be better because they would possibly have alot more engery then say a 40 year old.
i think this relates to today because you always hear about all these moms and dads who are getting laid off but alot of teenagers are getting jobs. yeah they might not be the best jobs around, but working in these times could be better then not working.
i think the depression brought communities closer together.(somewhat) I mean think about it, the unemployment ment the mass majority, so now most people have something in common, a common bond if you will. I think people were able to deal/handle the depression better because they weren't going through it alone.
Families in Philedelphia don't have a place to sleep, and many move in with their friends and family so you have a large number of people living in a small area. The people need jobs, and since no one is hiring and everyone is firing, there's no jobs to get. But, if the government starts doing public works projects, then these people will have a job, and money, and money to spend.
the great depression was very unprecadented, and i can see why it happened. it is scary to see the same thing happen as of this moment. actually the unemployment rate is dropping faster than it did in the depression. everthing described in this document is quickly happening today, like the unemployment, and the margins.
Many families in Philadelphia were thrown out of their homes and stripped of their belongings because of their inability to pay rent. However other people understood their difficulties and frequently took them in so that their could be several families living together in a single, small apartment. There were some that rejected the idea of taking welfare and went out for hours a day searching for jobs. I liked this article because so far we have only been talking about the big picture aspects of the Great Depression but this article gives insight into the everyday effects it had on the individual.
Kind of scary reading this and being able to compare it to 2009.
People are being evicted left and right, just as it is here. Forclosure, its happened to a friend of mine this past summer..
People seraching or any sort of job available, again much like it is today.
With Roosevelts New Deal, people can have a job on public works projects like building national parks which in turn will put money in their pockets and place money back into the economy.
Reading Miss Kahn's testimony was heartwrenching. These people cannot find any jobs and are forced to seek help from their neighbors. Fitting twenty people into a 3-room apartment? There's not even enough room to breathe. Rents were unpaid, cause people to be evicted. Not only did they have to leave the house, but they had to sell some of their personal possessions. People wanted to be stronger and were pretty much in denial, not wanting any help or relief. But in the end, they knew they needed it. Fathers and teenagers not able to find employment began giving them a bad name among the household, saying they're 'too lazy' and not working hard enough. The New Deal attempted to resolve these problems by providing people with jobs on public works projects.
So many people were being evicted from their houses, so they were often times forced to live either with neighbors or even on the streets. Men are actually forced to ealk around all day looking for jobs. I thought it was particularly sad when the man said that his wife did not believe him : "Have you anybody you can send around to my
family to tell my wife you have no job to give me! Because she doesn't believe
that a man who walks the street from morning till night, day after day, actually
can't get a job in this town. She thinks I don't want to work."
The sad part fo this situation is that this was actually true, people simply had no jobs to offer.
Roosevelt's New Deal was basically a plan to create new jobs. through Public works projects. It was believed that the investment into creating new jobs would in turn help the economy (people had money to spend, so they would eventually spend it). This reminds me of the recent stimulus package that was just passed....
effects of the depression on family in Philadelphia caused many people not to be able to pay their rent but some landlords allowed people to stay in their homes. And b/c some people had been evicted, and family's belongings and furniture were being sold on the street. Other family s allowed homeless family to sleep at their homes on the floor or in chairs.
Peoples response to the depression was that people did not care if they got paid they just wanted to have a job.
as was the case throughout most of the U.S. people could not pay rent because they were out of work so they were evicted from their homes. during times of crisis people often come together as a community and friends and extended family share just about everything they have with each other wich is good in this case. People were taken in off the streets, even by the landlords who had to evict them. people lost their jobs, but that wasn't everything that they lost. usually they lost their entire life savings either because they spent it when they didn't have a job or because the banks crashed. teenagers would have to get jobs to support their families, which may be surprising, but they were probably slightly more ignorant than their parents and they would take lower salaries than what adults might have asked for.
Yes, I agree with Matt V., the economy of today is spiraling downward at a frighteningly swift pace. If no action is successful in counteracting this crisis, the world will be in a depression of unheard of magnitude. Like I said in the previous post, if this happens, it will affect us and our families. This is a serious time in modern history, and if history repeats itself, as it usually does, the future doesn't look too bright.
The Depression in Philadelphia forced many families to be evicted. Because of all of their furniture thrown out and with no money to live, they would sell their belongings for money. In other cases, some evicted families were fortunate enough to have kind neighbors who would take them in. Many people look for jobs but are unable to find one, even when searching all day and night.
The New Deal attempted to solve these problems by opening up employment for public works projects. This would have helped unemployment rates go down and so people would have had a higher chance in raising money for their family
The ability of people to pay the necessary fees to live (rent) wasnt helpe dat alll by the Depression. Families were getting rid of everything for any scrap of money. People were begging for work of any sorts just to put meager amounts of food on the table...
The people of Philadelphia were being evicted from their homes due to their lack of ability to pay their rent. Because of this, many people were turning to each other for support, so they would not end up on the streets. They'd sleep wherever they could and fit in as many people as they could into one space. People had a hard time believing that there was no way that people could go job hunting for a long time day after day and not be able to find work. Not only was the father figure unable to do this, but neither were the kids that were often looked at as the providers of the family if their current head of the household was unable to provide.
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