In response to Robertson's essay, I was shocked how many people were out of jobs and how many people got bankrupt from the depression. It really affected so many people. It shows that one of the reasons of the depression was that banks were loaning out money and stocks for not as much as it was worth. An example of this was "Today, if you wanted to buy $100 worth of stock, you have to put up $80 and the broker would put up $20. In those days, you could put up $8 or $10" (100). It just shows that after people got loans of stocks, they couldn't pay the loans back, so the banks went under. It was a major problem and one of the main reasons for the Great Depression. People were committing suicide left and right because people were bankrupt, couldn't buy food and water, and were homeless/couldn't pay for their house anymore. "On Wall Street, the people walked around like zombies. It was like Death Takes A Holiday. It was very dark. You saw people who yesterday rode around in Cadillacs lucky now to have carfare" (101). In these times, some of the rich even became bankrupt. Robertson was talking to his great friend, John Hertz, who was a very intellectual man, who was brilliant in trading stocks/the stock business, "Do mean of your kind put away $10 million where nobody can ever touch it? He looked at me and answered. Young man, what's the use of having ten million if you can't have big money?" (102). It shows that in these rough times, you couldn't put away lots of money in banks because the banks were closed/out of business because they gave away other peoples' money to loan to other people that asked for money because they had no other money to loan away. This is how the banks went out of business. A question that I have about this story was why would some people commit suicide over the Great Depression? It doesn't make any sense to me. There are so many other options for getting your money back, getting food/water, and shelter. That shouldn't even be an option. This story connects to US history because it relates to the Great Depression and how many banks became bankrupt and almost everyone during this time became bankrupt and could barely survive these rough times. This story illustrates being an American because Americans are greedy and are always trying to find ways to to become rich/cheat the system. During the Roaring Twenties, everyone was so happy/it was one the happiest times ever in American history. Everyone was over-confident and too optimistic, which led to overspending and led the banks to become out of business. The main problem for this is greed.
Clifford Burkes essay relates to Robertson's essay because in Burke's essay, Burke said that the depression didn't mean much to him, "If you can tell me the difference between the depression today and the Depression of 1932 for a black man, I'd like to know it" (105). This is because the best he could do was to be a janitor, a porter, or a shoeshine boy. He ended up later being a hustler for a living though. Burke is really upset because blacks didn't have equal rights to whites and everyone cared so much about the Great Depression because whites were losing jobs and were going bankrupt/homeless, but lots of blacks have been living this lifestyle for a long time: homeless, very low paying jobs, and low food/water. It just shows you that the whole country only cares for whites and not for blacks,"The American white man has been superior so long, he can't figure out why he should come down" (106). It is too bad that blacks couldn't be more involved and have higher paying jobs and better jobs to help out society/end the Great Depression. Blacks had as much potential to work and to be smart as whites did if they were given the equal chance, but they weren't. The American dream is wealth, success, and a family, but blacks had none of that and had no chance of getting any of that back then, which makes me really sad because they were guaranteed equal rights and freedom from the U.S. Constitution, but they were actually denied that in society because they were treated unfairly.
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