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Holly Holt
Professor VanBebber
Writing 100
18 March 2009
Not So Great Depression: Rough Draft Version 2
“On December 1, 2008 the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially
declared the United States in recession, and estimated that it began in December 2007”
(Papademetriou, 5). Ignorance is bliss –this must be true for the reporters of major television
networks that are comparing the Great Depression of the 1930’s with the current economic
recession. Nathan Burchfiel of the Business and Media Institute stated, “As the economy has
slowed and indicators have started showing signs of fatigue, historically negative media
coverage has taken a turn for the worst” (Burchfiel, 1). The economic recession should not be
classified as a depression, because the conditions of the Great Depression were far worse than
what Americans are facing now. The recession of the 2000s is nothing like the depression of the
1930s in that the economy is strong enough that we are not facing enormous migration,
unemployment or the fear of communism.
The migration of the Great Depression, specifically the Dust Bowl of the Midwest, is
nothing that Americans have witnessed during the current recession. The Dust Bowl devastated
the farmers of the Midwest. During the 1930s or otherwise known as the “dirty thirties,” there
was a combination of a drought and severe dust storms which made farming impossible for
Midwest farmers. John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 which depicted the
Midwest migration to California and explained the conditions the farmers were facing during the
Dust Bowl. Steinbeck wrote, “Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and
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windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like
pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes” (Steinbeck, Chapter 1). Approximately 300400,000 of the Midwest farmers from Texas, Arkansas and Missourians migrated to California in
hopes that agricultural conditions and jobs would be more available. James Gregory explains,
This would have been a significant population transfer in any era but was particularly
momentous in the context of the depression when internal migration rates for other parts
of the country were low and when high unemployment made any kind of relocation risky
(Gregory, 1).
There has not been a significant internal transfer of populations during the current recession nor
have there been enormous weather conditions such as drought which have prevented agriculture
from prospering. For example, the was only 2,448 people in the United States in 2007 that
moved from one region in the United States to another, compared to the 400,000 during the
depression (U.S. Census Bureau). Therefore, this recession should not be classified as a
depression.
While society is currently very concerned with unemployment rates, the rate of
unemployment is minimal compared to the rates during the Great depression. Unemployment
was the single most devastating issue during the depression. During the Great Depression
unemployment rose to nearly 25% whereas today we face a national unemployment rate of 6%.
Professor of economics, Dr. Wayne Carroll stated, “We live in very affluent times. So if we get
a 1% reduction from what we enjoy now and we’re used to, we feel really harshly” (Rasmussen,
1). Another economic expert, Dr. Donald Boudreaux proclaimed, “Unemployment is only 4.9
percent –not super-duper, but pretty darn respectable” (Burchfiel, 2). Another important
designation between a depression and recession in regards to the economy and employment is
the gross domestic product. For instances, in 1934 the GDP was -13.0 and in 2008 the GDP was
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1.1. This is a significant difference between a depression and recession (Bureau of Economic
Analysis).
Migration and the lack of jobs became a serious issue during the Great Depression – so
serious that many Americans believed democracy was lacking and other forms of government
such as communism was considered. The economy became so bad during the Great Depression
that many people believed the United States would become communist. Senator Huey Long
proposed legislation that would redistribute wealth and give government housing to everyone.
Citizens making $2,500,000 would be stripped of their wealth and it would be given to the less
fortunate. This plan was a little extreme, but President Roosevelt was very serious about
redistributing wealth. While today’s legislatures are discussing many national and socialized
programs, such as nationalized health care, we are not in jeopardy of succumbing to communism
as we were in the 1930s.
The Great Depression was a terrible time period for America and for the world. It is
ignorance of journalists to exaggerate the current economic conditions by comparing it to the
Great Depression just to sell the news. While many ABC and CNN reporters may want you to
think that this is the worst recession since the Great Depression, many scholars are saying that
“we face anything remotely like a replay of the 1930s” (Burchfiel, 2). Compared to the Great
Depression we are not facing large migration, extremely high unemployment rates or the fear of
communism. Burchfiel clarifies, “Current economic conditions are nothing like they were in the
Great Depression with bread lines, hundreds of banks failing every year, production falling 20
percent and unemployment near 24 percent” (Burchfiel, 2). Therefore, Americans really are not
in distress now, and once the media stops portraying the recession as a depression all of us will
realize how much better off we are now than during the Great Depression.
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Works Cited
Burchfiel, Nathan. “Not-So-Great Depression Coverage: All of the Hype, but none of the Bread
Lines. Business & Media Institute. 5 March 2009. Pages 1,2.
Bureau of Economic Analysis. GDP and the Economy Advance Estimates. March 2009.
http://www.bea.gov/national/an1.htm
Gregory, James N. “The Dust Bowl Migration” Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia
of History, Politics and Policy. 3 March 2009. Page 1.
Papademetriou, Demetrios G., and Aaron Terrazas. Immigrants and the Current Economic
Crisis: Research Evidence, Policy Challenges, and Implications. Migration Policy
Institute. January 2009. Page 5.
Rasmussen, Sarah. “Comparing the Great Depression to Today’s Economic Recession.” 5
March 2009. Page 1.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. The Viking Press: 1939. Chapter 1.
U.S. Census Bureau. Geographical Mobility: 2006-2007.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/migrate/cps2007.html