The Depression had a powerful impact on family life. It forced couples to delay marriage and drove the birthrate below the replacement level for the first time in American history. The divorce rate fell, for the simple reason that many couples could not afford to maintain separate households or pay legal fees.

During the height of the Depression, 250,000 teenagers were roaming around America by freight trains. Even though these rural African-Americans had known poverty most of their lives, the Great Depression was a hard hit. Their living conditions worsened due to the fact that the farmers they worked for lost their land.

More important was the impact that it had on people’s lives: the Depression brought hardship, homelessness, and hunger to millions. THE DEPRESSION IN THE CITIES In cities across the country, people lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes and ended up in the streets.

How did the Great Depression affect the lives of urban and rural Americans? Urban Americans had a hard time finding and staying in work. They also experienced low wages. The Dust Bowl is when the top soil was blown away, so life got harder because nothing would grow without the precious top soil.

The average American family lived by the Depression-era motto: “Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.” Many tried to keep up appearances and carry on with life as close to normal as possible while they adapted to new economic circumstances. Households embraced a new level of frugality in daily life.

When prices fell they tried to produce even more to pay their debts, taxes and living expenses. In the early 1930s prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. Some farmers became angry and wanted the government to step in to keep farm families in their homes.

In rural areas, many banks failed — went bankrupt and closed — because they were unable to collect anything of value on loans they had made to farmers. Anyone who had money in these banks lost their savings. For farmers and farm communities, the Great Depression began in the 1920s.

The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the United States , i.e., Germany and Great Britain . In Germany , unemployment rose sharply beginning in late 1929 and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25 percent of the work force.

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had failed.

There were many aspects to the economy of the 1920s that led to one of the most crucial causes of the Great Depression – the stock market crash of 1929. In the early 1920s, consumer spending had reached an all-time high in the United States. American companies were mass-producing goods, and consumers were buying.

During the Great Depression, however, women and children alike had to find work to help make ends meet. Kids Sold Newspapers- Many kids got up early to sell newspapers to make money for their families. They would even recruit their friends and then would earn a small bonus for that.

Joseph Kennedy, Sr.: Stocks, Movies and Spirits 1930s. Seated from left, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Joseph P Kennedy Sr, Eunice Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, and Kathleen Kennedy; standing from left, Joseph P Kennedy Jr, John F Kennedy, Rose Kennedy, Jean Kennedy, and Patricia Kennedy.

Paul Getty. An amazing beneficiary of good timing and great business acumen, Getty created an oil empire out of a $500,000 inheritance he received in 1930. With oil stocks massively depressed, he snatched them up at bargain prices and created an oil conglomerate to rival Rockefeller.

The food industry is a common choice, said Robert Boyd, a sociology professor at Mississippi State University. In fact, more than half of the families whose fortunes began building during the Great Depression started there, and they now tally a combined net worth of $24.3 billion.

Best Assets To Own During A Depression

• Gold And Cash. Gold and cash are two of the most important assets to have on hand during a market crash or depression.
• Real Estate.
• Domestic Bonds, Treasury Bills, & Notes.
• Foreign Bonds.
• In The Bank.
• In Bank Safe Deposit Boxes.
• In The Stock Market.
• In A Private Vault.

5 Great Depression Success Stories

• Floyd Bostwick Odlum. Many investors lost everything during the market crash of 1929 because they had mistakenly assumed Wall Street’s good times were never going to end.
• Movies.
• Procter & Gamble.
• Martin Guitars.
• Brewers.

To make the world smarter, happier, and richer….Some did even better.

In a recession, the rate of inflation tends to fall. This is because unemployment rises moderating wage inflation. Also with falling demand, firms respond by cutting prices. This fall in inflation can benefit those on fixed incomes or cash savings.

Healthcare, food, consumer staples, and basic transportation are examples of relatively inelastic industries that can perform well in recessions. They may also benefit from being considered essential industries during the public health emergency.

Treasury Bills, Notes and Bonds While stocks and mutual funds are bound to be a gamble during a depression, default-proof Treasury bills, Treasury notes and Treasury bonds may be a good investment. These are issued by the U.S. government and offer a fixed rate of interest after they mature.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), an independent federal agency, protects you against financial loss if an FDIC-insured bank or savings association fails. Typically, the protection goes up to $250,000 per depositor and per account at a federally insured bank or savings association.

In the recession which followed the financial crisis, the phrase was often used to describe companies which could avoid share issues or bankruptcy. “Cash is king” is relevant also to households, i.e., to avoid foreclosures.

Bonds can be a good investment during a bear market because their prices generally rise when stock prices fall. The primary reason for this inverse relationship is that bonds, especially U.S. Treasury bonds, are considered a safe haven, which makes them more attractive to investors than volatile stocks in such times.