President Herbert Hoover Does Nothing
- America had never experienced an economic disaster as bad as the Depression, so they could not expect perfection from President Hoover.
However, Americans expected him to do something. Instead, Hoover insisted that helping Americans would only make things worse, because Americans needed to help themselves. However, the problem was not that Americans weren't looking hard enough for jobs or money - there were no jobs, and there was no money.
Hoover resisted any help for the poor, starving, jobless, or bankrupt. He believed in a pure free market economy and therefore opposed any government assistance to help protect banks or save businesses from laying off employees. As a result, the depression grew much, much worse. Resentment for Hoover quickly built throughout America. The thousands of homeless families who lived in tents in city parks called their embarrassing shanty-towns "Hoovervilles" in honor of the man they blamed for the Great Depression.
Describe the Problem and its Effects of President Herbert Hoover Does Nothing?