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What If The United States Suffers Another Great Depression?
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Mar 31, 2025
The Great Depression was a monumental event that shifted the economic center of the United States. And while the Great Recession was very bad, it still doesn't hold a candle to the impact that the Great Depression had. Despite its negatives, the Great Depression lead to some fundamental shifts in American society that brought many long lasting benefits to the American people. Chief among them social security. So what if another Great Depression hits the United States?
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The Great Depression was a pivotal moment for the United States
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In the span of a single year, the economy that was holding up the country collapsed
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leaving millions of people without a job. But while the economic issues were severe
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the Great Depression's lasting legacy is in how it reshaped the economic center of the country
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So what if the United States suffers from a second Great Depression? Hello and welcome to What If Geography, where we try and answer the great
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geographic what-if questions of the world. I'm your host, Jeff Gibson, and today we're gonna explore
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a little bit of economic geography. During the turn of the 20th century
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the world plunged into an economic depression the likes of which has never been felt before or since
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and it's left an indelible impact on the United States. But before we get to the episode
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be sure to check out the What If Geography Podcast where we take the same content you love
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and dive way deeper. New episodes premiere every Wednesday, and you can listen on the
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What If Geography Podcast YouTube channel, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
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The Great Depression started with a singular event, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, also called the Great Crash
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Prior to the Great Crash, the stock market had been on a nine-year streak of ever-increasing gains
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At the time, people thought that the stock market would only ever increase, which led to more wild speculation and people taking on more and more consumer debt
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This is the period of time that we often consider to be the roaring 20s
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And then, starting in September of 1929, the market began to retract
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As you can imagine, it was a time of great stress for the American people who
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at the time, thought that something like this would be impossible. But while the stock market crash of 1929 would take place only within a couple months of a single year
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the knock-on effects would last for many years beyond. Starting from the early 1930s, the American people had a much different reality
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than they were accustomed to. Jobs became scarce and unemployment was high. While specific figures
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are hard to come by, it's estimated that unemployment hit a high of about 25% during
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the peak of the Great Depression. During this time, Americans participated in what is today
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called the Great Migration, wherein people moved from the south and middle of the country
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to the northeast or west coast in hopes of finding economic relief. This is also when we were
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beginning to see the appearance of Hoovervilles all around the country, which were shabbily
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created structures found on empty lots where people lived In many ways it mirrors similar encampments we see today The Great Depression would eventually lead to a number of very influential changes within the United States The first is that the population at large swung dramatically to the left of the
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political spectrum, as people blamed President Herbert Hoover, who was Republican, for not doing
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enough to staunch the effects of the Great Depression. People also generally found that
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the deregulatory efforts by Hoover's political party were largely the root cause of the Great
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Depression. As such, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was swept into office. This was quickly followed
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by Democrats taking both houses of Congress. What this rapid political shift enabled was a
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little program called the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of programs that dramatically shifted
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the core of what the federal government of the United States was seen as responsible for
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As part of the sweeping legislation, the American people got Social Security
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the Works Project Administration, Farm Security Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. All of these were established to either help people directly through welfare and cash
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payments, or indirectly by offering them jobs. The Works Progress Administration was responsible
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for building some of the most iconic structures we have in our country today, including Griffith
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Observatory in Los Angeles, the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Timberline Lodge in Oregon, and many
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many, many more buildings. But while all of these programs were helpful to get Americans working
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again and get money flowing, there was really only one thing that would truly bring the country out
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of the Great Depression, World War II. Kicking off for the United States in 1941, World War II
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moved over 10 million people from the civilian labor force and into the military to fight in the
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war. Millions more would work in manufacturing and in the industrial sector to support the war
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All of this economic movement successfully raised the economy of the United States out of the
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Depression and into an era of unbelievable prosperity. The Great Depression was a very
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tough time for the country as a whole. But it also led to some of the most dramatic changes for the
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American people that we still feel today. Without the Great Depression, we might very well not have
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any sort of social security, for example. Another Great Depression would be equally as devastating
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but it would also lead to some very impactful changes for the country. But before we get into
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what a second Great Depression might look like, if you're enjoying this video, now would be a great
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time to subscribe. More fun What If Geography videos are just a single click away
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In 2007, the United States was hit by a recession. This would quickly be followed by the collapse of several prominent banks and financial investment companies All of this would culminate in what would later be referred to as the Great Recession To this day the Great Recession maintains its position as the longest prolonged global economic contraction since the Great Depression
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Despite this, the Great Recession is not considered to be a depression, which is a fundamentally different type of economic collapse. The primary difference
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between the two is the general level of impact felt across industry and geography
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You see, while a recession is often categorized by a general downward trend in business and opportunities
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it is often highlighted by a single industry or is largely occurring within a single country or region
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For example, the dot-com recession in the early 2000s triggered a recession
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but was still largely confined within the tech industry. There were some knock-on effects, but it didn't greatly impact other industries at large
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A depression, on the other hand, is a large downward swing in the overall economy
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which brings widespread and cross-industry unemployment. It will also not be contained within a single country or region
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but rather will have reverberating impacts across the globe. The Great Depression was felt much farther than the shores of the United States, for example
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And while the Great Recession was certainly felt worldwide, it was still largely contained within two industries
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the banking industry and the housing and construction industry. These two industries are intrinsically linked, of course
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so it's not surprising that one would bring the other down. But the tech industry, for example, was relatively unscathed during this time
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because there was some upward economic movement in other industries, the Great Recession is categorized as a recession
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A very severe one, of course, but not nearly the same level as the Great Depression
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A depression will ultimately lead to fundamental shifts in how the economy works going forward
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and even where people might live. More often than not, when people migrate to another part of the country
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or even to a new country entirely, they do so due to some real or perceived economic benefit
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And we saw this with the original Great Depression as well. As opportunities disappeared within the South and Midwest
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both of which were largely agricultural, people picked up their families and moved to the North and the West
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If a second Great Depression were to hit the United States, it's fair to assume that something similar would probably occur
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While it's difficult to predict exactly where people would move, it's probably safe to assume that they would largely migrate to the large cities of the country
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As of 2021, approximately 57 million people still lived in areas that would be considered rural
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That's a little less than 20% of the entire country. If a similar economic depression hit the United States
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it probably safe to assume that even more people would move to cities in search of jobs But more than that people would likely try to move specifically to where various industries that might be resistant to economic downturns would be The West Coast for example is home
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to many of the world's largest tech companies, and tech has historically been pretty resilient
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to economic downturn. Places that lack specific or specialized industries would likely struggle
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and people living there would probably move to where they could potentially find work. All that said, the COVID-19 pandemic also showed the world that working from home was
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viable for productivity. So while people may move from one city to another in search of work
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they may equally be able to find work from their existing location and simply work in a remote
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fashion. Though we've certainly seen some companies attempt to return to normal office life
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Once the dust has settled, it's likely that the United States would once again look a bit
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different than it does today. If a second Great Depression really did hit the country
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there would no doubt be another monumental effort by the federal government to inject money into the
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economy. And the best way to do this would be to establish large infrastructure projects
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While we can't say specifically what the federal government would invest in, it would likely want to include the construction industry in some way
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At the very least, it's probably safe to assume that additional transportation infrastructure
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would be built. In 2021, Congress passed the Investments in Infrastructure and Jobs Act
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whose aim is to rebuild the country's aging infrastructure and invest in some new technologies
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such as electric vehicle chargers. But it also had quite a bit of money set aside for improving
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and reestablishing passenger rail for the country. Given that rail infrastructure provides a lot of benefits overall
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it wouldn't be surprising to see something similar in any Great Depression-style
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federal infrastructure package, ideally around high-speed rail. Aside from that, the country would also have additional safety nets
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established to ensure people are able to recover. Much in the way that the first Great Depression
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established Social Security, it wouldn't be surprising if the people of the United States
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got something equally as monumental, such as true universal healthcare. Healthcare is, after all
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one of the largest areas where people find themselves in debt. A universal healthcare
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system would go a long way towards lifting a large population out of poverty. Another Great
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Depression would be very scary, but it's also a great opportunity. When business is good
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there's very little desire to shake things up or rock the boat by passing big legislation
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But when business is bad, and those businesses aren't able to lobby, there's a lot of opportunity
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to right historic wrongs. And sometimes that can be worth it. I hope you enjoyed today's episode
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on what a second Great Depression in the United States might look like. If you did, please subscribe to my channel
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And if you wanna watch more of my videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching
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See you next time
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