The USA in the 1920s-who didnt benefit
- Created by: Heather
- Created on: 23-03-14 15:14
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- The USA in the 1920s- who didn't benefit?
- Economic Boom
- This is a simplified view that all of American 'boomed',
- This isn't true as blacks, farmers, new immigrants and low-wage earners all missed out,
- Problems for farmers
- During WW1, US farmers increased exports to Europe by 300%,
- Once WW1 ended, Europeans began producing again and the USA was hit with overproduction,
- High tariffs on American goods meant foreigners didn't buy US goods,
- Prohibition hit barley production,
- Industrial Workers
- Despite huge rises in profits, 80%+, wages only rose by 8%,
- Many skilled workers were replaced with mechanisation,
- Throughout the 1920s, unemployment was always higher than 2 million,
- There was discrimination if workers weren't WASPs- White Anglo Saxon Protestants,
- Black Americans
- Racism was high in the South and 75% of the Black population lived there,
- They were usually poor and lived in squalor and were exploited by rich white landowners.
- The Jim Crows Law made this racism legal and led to segregation on buses restaurants etc,
- Below the poverty line
- 60% of families were below the poverty line and earned $2,000 a year,
- This meant they couldn't afford consumer goods and were so poorly paid there was little they could do,
- Consistently low wages prevented many from benefitting from the boom and some were already in a depression before the Wall Street Crash,
- Consequences,
- Rural areas didn't benefit- it was city based,
- At least half of all Americans didn't benefit from the 1920s boom,
- Whilst some Americans benefitted greatly, the rest were simply poor and were in a depression before the Wall Street Crash,
- Economic Boom
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