Stock Market example essay topic

The 1920'the 1920's where a time of conservatism, it was a time of great social change. From the world of fashion to the world to politics, forces clashed to produce the most explosive decade of the century. The eighteenth Amendment was passed in 1920, which made alcohol illegal. It was called the Prohibition Amendment. This was known as the "Noble Experiment". All importing, exporting, selling, manufacturing and transporting of alcohol were illegal.

The older people favored this amendment. They felt that alcohol was bad because of the way people behaved after drinking. People thought that crime, death rates and poverty would decrease now because alcohol was illegal. The younger generation did not like this amendment. Many people did not really listen to the law. The law actually increased the amount of people drinking alcohol.

Some people would try and make alcohol in their own homes. This was called "bathtub gin". Alcohol would be smuggled from Canada during the twenties (Microsoft Encarta, 1999). Saloons that used to serve liquor were now called speak-easier.

Instead of reducing the crimes rates, crime was actually greater. Organized crime was developed because of Prohibition. Sometimes police were bribed and went along with what was going on and would not do anything. The death rates were much higher than before.

"Prohibition destroyed legal jobs, created black-market violence, diverted resources from enforcement of other laws and increased prices people had to pay for prohibited goods" (T horton, Mark 1991). Al Capone was one of the most powerful bootleggers in Chicago, there were many gangs rivals due to prohibition the people who were bootlegging became wealthy because many people wanted alcohol. In the 1920's, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, which gave women the right to vote. During this decade women became strong and more independent.

Women were accomplishing a lot more than they had before. Women started going to college so she could earn her own living. More women started leaving the home and working at a factory or as a secretary. Women were discriminated at the work place. They received lower wages then man did.

In the 1920's, the term flapper was introduced. It was first used in Britain after World War 1. Young women were labeled as flappers who wore makeup shorter skirts. Flappers were more reckless and took risks. Women's behavior started changing.

She would drink and smoke in public like men did. The women in the twenties became much more provocative. In general, women sought greater personal freedom and equality with men in her social life (Gales Research 1998). The technology and science during the twenties was very important. Many new ideas and inventions were introduced to Americans that influenced their lives.

Henry fords automobile changed American life. Ford wanted to "democratize the automobile". He wanted to everyone to be able to afford an automobile and have one. To help this he paid his workers five dollars a day, for doing this he was known as the friend of the worker.

Ford also lowered the price of his cars. The model t ford became the "family pet of the nation" (Gales research, 1998). By 1929, 23.1 million passenger cars were in use in the United States. The privacy and mobility offered by the car would transform the Americans lived. The spread of technology affected consumerism.

The United States economy went through a steady growth and expansion during this time. The radio became very popular in the twenties. By 1922, 3 million Americans households had radios. Many new electric appliances such as: vacuum cleaners, toasters, washing machines, televisions and refrigerators were introduced. These appliances helped the American housewife. Women became America's greatest consumer.

People started going to see motion pictures. The first movies were called silent screens. Revolutionary changes in family behavior led to the rise of the new idea of family called the "companionate family" (Gales Research, 1998). The new companionate family viewed husband and wives as "friends and lovers" and parents and children as "pals". In the 1920's the families became smaller.

There were also fewer youths than before. Now there were more adults per youth and less pressure on the kids to take on adult responsibilities. The youth had more time to themselves and the adults had a greater concern for taking care of their children. More people were making efforts to try and legalize birth control, allow divorce and establish programs in marriage counseling, sex education and child guidance.

Sports were very popular during the 1920's. The decade of the 1920's was referred to as the "golden age for sports" (web). Baseball, boxing and football became very popular sports. Sports such as golf that was only for the upper class now became available to the middle class. Schools started to make sports teams for the children. Many records were broken during this time.

Babe Ruth was one of the famous athletes in the twenties. He broke the old baseball home-run record in 1927 with 60 home runs. Another famous athlete was jack Dempsey. In the twenties he was the greatest heavy weight champion. Dempsey and Ruth were probably the most well known athletes of the e 1920's. They were looked up to and idolized by many.

Technology made the nation able to enjoy sport events. The radio allowed Americans to follow what was going on with sports in their home (gales research, 1998). During the twenties there were scandals and corruption. Harding's administration started it off. The Secretary of Interior, Albert B. Fall, is remembered for the worst scandal during this time. Fall had accepted bribes from wealthy oil companies, He leased these company's government oil reserves from California and Wyoming.

This was known as the Teapot Dome scandal. Harding had no idea what Fall was doing. Fall was caught and trailed by the Senate. He was found guilty. While Coolidge was president the economy was very good. Businesses were doing well.

The assembly line helped man big companies. Businesses were making things in mass production, which made things cheaper. People were working for higher wages and less hours. There were less people in labor unions. Now people were spending more money.

The big businesses tried to concentrate on the industry by limiting competition. There were more chain stores now. The big companies were not disliked anymore because they helped the people instead of trying to be the most powerful company in the country. Now the stock market was not limited to just the wealthy business owners. Anyone could buy stocks if they wanted to. The only people who did not benefit from "Coolidge prosperity" were the farmers.

Machines made production greater which made prices of their crops less. Farmers were always in debt and it was hard for them to get out of debt. "The 1920's were marked by racial and ethnic conflicts" (Gales Research, 1998). Immigrants that came to the United States during this time were different from the old immigrants. These immigrants looked different because they were coming from southern Europe, Asia and Mexico. These immigrants went to the cities to find jobs.

Americans didn't like these immigrants because they where willing to work for less wages and long hours. The immigrants brought different cultures and Americans did not like this either. There was still discrimination against African Americans in the twenties. The government did not do anything to stop this either. After World War I, there was a great fear that lasted thought out the twenties. There was a fear that Communism would come to the United States because it was going on in Russia.

This fear made people have hatred towards the immigrants that were coming here and the people who had the same views as communist did. Immigration decreased during the twenties. Many other immigrants like, Emma Goldman, who lived in America during this time were sent back to where they had come from. The American Defense Society, the National Security League, and the American Legion were organizations that led offensive acts against radicals and foreigners (Gale Research, 1998).

This fear was known as the Red Scare. Since the prices of the stock market rose and more and more people were getting involved in it, people would borrow money to buy a lot of shares to try and make a lot of money. They thought that if they bought a lot of shares they would be able to pay back the loans. Bankers were warned to make any more loans for buying stocks. Many banks did not listen to this advice. In September of 1929 the stock market started to waver.

In October people tired to sell their shares because of the unstable stock market. So many tried to sell millions of shares and it was too much at once. Now the bankers were trying to get all the people who took out loans to pay the bank back. Many couldn't pay back their loans because they didn't have money. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. This day is known in history as Black Tuesday.

Everything went down from there. Many Americans who were involved in the stock market lost their money. The banks went bankrupt because they didn't have any money because they had made loans that people could not pay back. The people who weren't involved in the stock market lost their money too because the banks had to close down.

Workers lost their jobs because no one had any money to buy anything. People lost their homes and their jobs. They lost everything. The economy couldn't solve its problems of consumption and distribution. "Agriculture, construction, coal, textile and railroad industries were in decline (Gales Research, 1998). To try and get consumers to purchase goods, businesses came up with the installment plan.

The installment plan was that the consumer would make a down payment and then pay the rest in regular payments. This ended up with more people in debt. After the stock market crashed in the months that followed, forty billion dollars were lost. The Great Depression had started. The 1920's was a decade that changes American life. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the twenties as a "revolution in manners and morals".

The twenties has been named all types of nicknames, such as: "The Roaring Twenties", "The Era of Wonderful Nonsense", "The Decade of the Dollar", "The Period of the Psyche"", Dry Decade" and the age of "Alcohol and Al Capone" (Gales Research, 1998). During the twenties, the way Americans lived had changed. The 1920's was a time in history that has been remembered for its great prosperity but also for its great loss. The Great Depression is what ended the Roaring Twenties.

Bibliography

Gales Research. 1998.
Microsoft Encarta. CD-ROM. Microsoft, 1999.
Movies, Music, and Sports of the 1920's.
9 March. 2003 web Roaring Twenties Hitchhikers Guide- lectures with links and Photos H 102 Lecture 09.
9 March. 2003 web Mark.
Policy Analysis: Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure". July 17, 1991.
Online. Netscape. 23 April 1998.