Weaknesses beneath the surface of the Roaring Twenties

            The Great Depression was indeed the worst ever economic slump in the history of the United States. Nearly all aspects of the industrialized world were affected starting in 1929. There were many factors that played a part in the Depression, and the problems can be rooted mainly into the 1920's, the decade preceding the Depression. The passive approach towards politics, the unequal distribution of wealth, and the excessive speculation in the stock market at the time all afflicted the ultimately occurring Depression.
             One of the more careless mistakes that people in general made during the "roaring twenties" was approaching government through passive means. After the "Great War", no one was really in the mood to deal with government as much as they used to. People started to ignore their government and treat it like it was no longer a very important part of their lives. The lack of interest that people had is quite evident in the quality of the first two presidents during the 1920's, Harding and Coolidge. They were not the best presidents America had seen in its 150-year history. People had a lower voter turnout in that era than they did during many other voting opportunities, especially considering that women were awarded the right to vote with the 19th amendment. This low voter turnout and the generally apathetic approach people had towards government at the time must have been one of the causes of the eventually occurring Great Depression. .
             The most obvious of the existing weaknesses during the 1920's was unequal distribution of wealth among society. This really hurt society as the demand did not meet the supply. To understand this phrase, one can look at the total earnings in the nation, and how they were divided up. The top 0.1% of Americans had a combined income that was equal to the bottom 42%. While the top 0.1% of Americans held 34% of all savings, the bottom 80% of Americans did not even have any savings at all.