They often did not have much extra money with which they could invest in the stock market, so most of them didn't have much to lose when it crashed (Temin, 31). They might have lost a little bit when it crashed, but they still had jobs to go to. Industry had to go on, regardless of what the rest of the country was doing (Temin, 35). These workers were building things that the country had to have, so their jobs were fairly safe (Temin, 36). Even though such a large segment of society was affected by the Great Depression, many history texts and other literature make it sound as though everyone suffered greatly. This is not entirely true as there were many people, such as the industrial workers mentioned previously, that did not have money in the stock market and did not lose their jobs when the market crashed and the Great Depression began (Christiano, Motto, & Rostagno, 1127. This does not mean that the depression of the 1930s should be made light of. It was a very serious time in history.

It is necessary to remember, however, that not everyone in the country suffered and the market eventually recovered. Only those that took their own lives really...

Those that had a lot of money to invest in the market were the hardest hit, and many of these people lost their large homes and many of their assets. Some fear that this kind of market crash and depression could actually happen again.
Works Cited

Bordo, Michael, Erceg, Chris, & Evans, Charles (2000). "Money, Sticky Wages, and the Great Depression." American Economic Review 90, 1447-1463.

Christiano, Lawrence, Motto, Roberto, & Rostagno, Massimo (2003). "The Great Depression and the Friedman-Schwartz Hypothesis." Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 35, 1119-1198.

Cole, Harold, & Ohanian, Lee E. (2000). "Re-considering the Contributions of Money and Banking Shocks to the U.S. Great Depression." In Macroeconomics Annual, edited by Ben Bernanke and Kenneth Rogoff. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ohanian, Lee E. (2001). "Why Did Productivity Fall So Much During the Great Depression?" American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings…