The Great Depression

Question 1

Why did the great depression begin?

Answer 1

Factories were overproducing products, wealth was unevenly distributed, Stock Market Crash, sales started to slow (Europe didn’t need products anymore).

Question 2

Why did so many banks fail during the Great Depression?

Answer 2

Many people began pulling their money out of banks, and banks went bankrupt because they couldn’t give them all the money that they were pulling out of the bank

Question 3

How did people lose money to banks during the Great Depression?

Answer 3

When banks shut down, they lost all their money because the banks couldn’t return it.

Question 4

When was the date that stock prices hit a historical low and the Great Depression started?

Answer 4

October 29, 1929

Question 5

What is buying stocks on credit?

Answer 5

When the stock is paid off later with the profit from the stock when sold. Example: buy a 1$ stock, but not pay for it. Pay for it later when you sell the stock for 2$

Question 6

Why did so many people start selling stocks?

Answer 6

When people who knew about stocks started selling, everyone else panicked and started selling their stocks.

Question 7

How long did the Great Depression last?

Answer 7

Almost a decade

Question 8

What taxes typically went to schools at the time?

Answer 8

Local property taxes on homes and businesses

Question 9

Why did schools have to make extreme budget cuts?

Answer 9

So many people lost their homes, and so many businesses and factories were being closed that the schools had barely any tax money to work with

Question 10

What did schools do to cut expenses now that they had less money?

Answer 10

Hired less teachers, putting more students in classrooms (up to 60), desks and textbooks weren’t purchased, children sat on the floor, shared old desks, and shared old textbooks, kindergartens were cut from schools, schools nurses were not rehired, many classes like foreign language and PE were cut to save money. Teachers pay were also lowered extremely, some districts even payed them in script, or simply by allowing them to live at the school and donated food portions which they could cook over the classrooms stove.

Question 11

What were okies?

Answer 11

People migrated from Oklahoma

Question 12

Why did so many kids miss school?

Answer 12

They were working for their families to try to get money to get food, taking care of younger children at home, or they couldn’t afford school supplies

Question 13

What does WPA stand for and what did it do?

Answer 13

Works Project Administration, and it made work projects across America in order to create jobs

Question 14

What does the FDIC stand for and what did it do?

Answer 14

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, it made sure that the money of depositors in banks was protected

Question 15

What was Roosevelt’s first 100 days?

Answer 15

Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office, where he and congress passed many new laws and programs to help recover from the great depression

Question 16

What was the given name to shantytowns?

Answer 16

Hoovervilles

Question 17

Who was elected president in 1932?

Answer 17

Franklin Roosevelt

Question 18

Who was president at the beginning of the great Depression?

Answer 18

Hoover

Question 19

What was happening with farmers that contributed to the Great Depression?

Answer 19

Farmers were overproducing food, meaning that the cost went down. This caused many farms to shut down and go bankrupt, causing a shortage in food and contributing to the great depression.

Question 20

Define WPA.

Answer 20

(Works Project Administration). Established national work programs to create jobs.

Question 21

Define Social Security Act.

Answer 21

Provided workers with unemployment insurance and retirement benefits

Question 22

Define FDIC.

Answer 22

(Federal Deposit Insurance Company). Protected money of depositors in banks.

Question 23

What was Roosevelt’s first 100 days?

Answer 23

Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office was when he and Congress passed many new laws and programs to help recover from the great depression.

Question 24

What effect did the Stock Market Crash of 1929 have on the U.S. economy?

Answer 24

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 caused an economic downturn. Banks fail, loss of savings, factory closings.

Question 25

Explain how the unequal distribution of income helped lead to the Great Depression

Answer 25

60% of Americans earn less than $2,000 - meaning that they couldn’t buy many products to continue the nation’s money flowing.

Question 26

How were children affected by the Depression?

Answer 26

Children often couldn’t go to school as it was either too expensive (school supplies or clothes) or they had to stay home and take care of younger children/work on the farm.

Question 27

What was the nickname given to shantytowns (cheap housing, named after a president)? And why?

Answer 27

Hoovervilles because President Hoover wouldn’t help all the poor and unemployed because he believed it wasn’t the government’s job and should be left to charities to do.

Question 28

What was the New Deal?

Answer 28

The New Deal was of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans

Question 29

How were teachers affected by the Great Depression?

Answer 29

Less teachers were hired and their pay was also lowered extremely. Some districts even paid them in script, or simply by allowing them to live at the school and donated food portions which they could cook over the classroom’s stove. More women teachers were hired than men because they could be paid less for doing the same job.

Question 30

What is wrong with buying stocks on the margin?

Answer 30

Buying on the margin would be when the stock is paid off later with the profit from the stock when sold. However, if the stock’s value went down and you sold it, then you’d be in debt. People who bought stock on the margin at a higher price would be wiped out. Because now the stock price is very low and they can’t pay back their loan – people lose their life savings

Question 31

What were some effects of unemployment on people’s lives?

Answer 31

When people lost their jobs, they lost their income and had to live off their minimal savings. This led to them not being able to afford necessities (like food and water), medical care, clothes, supplies for their children, cars, houses, and many other luxuries. When they couldn’t afford the mortgage for their house, they lived in Hoovervilles where infection was easily spread. No money = hard life.

Question 32

Who was president at the beginning of the Depression?

Answer 32

President Herbert Hoover.

Question 33

Who was elected president in 1932?

Answer 33

Franklin Roosevelt.

Question 34

What were at least two effects of the Dust Bowl on the United States?

Answer 34

Farmers couldn’t make food as a bunch of land was wasted. People began moving West to California to escape the Dust Bowl. As no food was being harvested, it couldn’t be traded with other countries - meaning that the economy couldn’t benefit from it.