History: 102; The main causes of the Great Depression
Name:
Tutor’s Name:
Institution:
Due Date of Submission

The Great Depression was the nastiest economic slump in U.S. history, and that spread over to the industrial world (John 1960). It began in late 1929 and continued for about a decade. Many factors led to the depression, but the main cause was the blend of unequal distribution of wealth in the 1920s and the widespread stock market speculation in the latter part the decade (Roberts 1984). The misdistribution of wealth in the 1920's created an imbalance of wealth that further created an unstable economy (Mark 1992). The extreme stock speculation kept the stock market falsely high that eventually lead to rashes in a large market. These extensive market crashes, coupled with the misdistribution of wealth, led to the capsizing of the American economy (Judith1996).
On wealth misdistribution, the rich controlled much of the wealth in the U.S leaving the poor with little to share among themselves (Mark 1992). A major reason the enormous and rising gap between the rich and the working-class was the increased manufacturing output throughout the depression era (Frank 1986). From 1923-1929, the regular output per American worker increased 32% in manufacturing and time usual wages for manufacturing works increased only by 8% (John 1960). Hence, the increase of wages was only at a rate one fourth per increase in productivity. Moreover, with dropping production costs there was slow rising of wages and the prices constantly persisted (Roberts 1984). Hence, the majority benefit of the increased output went into corporate profits (Judith1996).
The U.S federal government also added to the growing gap between the middle-class and rich (Mark 1992). The Calvin Coolidge's administration and his conservative-controlled government preferred business thus the result was that