Реферат: Facts Of The Great Depression Essay Research
1920s
?During World War I, federal spending grows three times larger than tax collections.
When the government cuts back spending to balance the budget in 1920, a severe
recession results. However, the war economy invested heavily in the manufacturing
sector, and the next decade will see an explosion of productivity… although only for
certain sectors of the economy.
?An average of 600 banks fail each year.
?Agricultural, energy and coal mining sectors are continually depressed. Textiles, shoes,
shipbuilding and railroads continually decline.
?The value of farmland falls 30 to 40 percent between 1920 and 1929.
?Organized labor declines throughout the decade. The United Mine Workers Union will
see its membership fall from 500,000 in 1920 to 75,000 in 1928. The American
Federation of Labor would fall from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.4 million in 1929.
?”Structural unemployment” enters the nation’s vocabulary; as many as 200,000 workers a
year are replaced by automatic or semi-automatic machinery.
?Over the decade, about 1,200 mergers will swallow up more than 6,000 previously
independent companies; by 1929, only 200 corporations will control over half of all
American industry.
?By the end of the decade, the bottom 80 percent of all income-earners will be removed
from the tax rolls completely. Taxes on the rich will fall throughout the decade.
?By 1929, the richest 1 percent will own 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 93
percent will have experienced a 4 percent drop in real disposable per-capita income
between 1923 and 1929.
?The middle class comprises only 15 to 20 percent of all Americans.
?Individual worker productivity rises an astonishing 43 percent from 1919 to 1929. But
the rewards are being funneled to the top: the number of people reporting half-million
dollar incomes grows from 156 to 1,489 between 1920 and 1929, a phenomenal rise
compared to other decades. But it is still less than 1 percent of all income-earners.
1922