This led into another cause for the Great Depression. As companies began to lose their stock values, they were forced to close after their liquidity dried up. This caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs. Such a large loss of employments in such a …show more content…
As the text explains in “A Downward Spiral” and “The Banking Crisis,” the middle class began to hoard gold. This exacerbated the problem with liquidity in the market as it was. The country’s monetary system was based on a gold standard. Money supply, or contraction, was based on available gold. This limited the government’s ability to inject needed stimulus into the economy to spur investment when it was needed.
Men were particularly affected by the Great Depression. Their ability to provide for their families had vanished. Men reverted to helping their wives out in the household, and were at times seen as doing “women’s work.” This would drastically change the family dynamic, and women had to carry the burden of leading their households, and taking care of their unemployed husbands.
Veterans were deeply affected by the Great Depression. When their jobs were lost, many marched on Washington and asked for the benefits to be paid out immediately. The government, instead of negotiating, cracked down on these veterans and dispersed them. This left the veterans feeling like they had been cast aside, after having served their