The Great Depression

In my opinion the lack of diversification was the most important cause of the Great Depression. Lack of diversification was due to the American economy, in the 1920s, mainly consisting of two elements; construction and automobiles. Therefore when both industries started to decline, probably because people didnt need to buy a house or build a car if they already had one, in the late 1920s, the other industries were not able to compensate for the tremendous loss causing a great decline in money and especially stocks.Many people had money into construction and automobile industries because they were producing the most money and they were supposdely the most stable.
With the stock market boom during 1928-1929, right before "black Tuesday", most people had their hard earned money invested. Bankers were encouraging buyers to spend recklessly into the stock market, however once the to main industries started failing and people lost money the stock market started failing also. People began taking out money that wasent there and trying to invest into the other industries, however, these industries ( petroleum, chemicals, plastics, and others oriented towards consumers) were not able to pick up the slack. What soon followed was the Great Depression, and it was caused heavily on the lack of diversification.

Progressive Movements

One major problem that arose in society was monopolies. Monopolies were big companies that would basically control all of the work force and sometimes, influence government decisions by paying them off. These companies were able to overwork the workers and then charge them less money. People were often replaced quickly if they voiced opinion or were shut down by the companies, or government, forces. With monopolies controlling much of American economy progressives sought out ways in which to stop the domination of monopolies.

The ways in which the progressives tried to take down the monopolies was through breaking them up into smaller groups, secret ballots which brought in initiative, referendum, and recall, and direct primaries which reduced the business ownership and limit the dictatorship monopolies had on the economy. Initiative made it so that ideas and situations could be brought up to vote on elections. Referendum made it so that the vote could be done by electoral votes if it was questioned. Recall was the last thing that gave voters the right to remove a public official after a certain number of citizens signed a petition at a special convention.

Due to the progressive inputs, which made the public heavily involved public decisions, the movement became very successful. Monopolies were destroyed and the economy was free to be what it wants to be. The government could no longer be influenced by monopolies and the larger companies, and workers were now treated fairly and regulated through the government.