In Oakland, California, whole families lived in sewer pipes. Vagrancy shot up as many families were evicted from their homes for nonpayment of rent. The Southern Pacific Railroad boasted that it threw , vagrants off its trains in Free public flophouses and missions in Los Angeles provided beds for , of the uprooted. To save money, families neglected medical and dental care.
Many families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying used bread, and using cardboard and cotton for shoe soles. Despite a steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat. In New York City, milk consumption declined by a million gallons a day. President Herbert Hoover declared, "Nobody is actually starving. The hoboes are better fed than they have ever been.
The Depression had a powerful impact on families. It forced couples to delay marriage and drove the birthrate below the replacement level for the first time in American history. They also did not smoke or drink more than employed people. In fact, Tapia notes that cigarette sales have historically risen when the economy is doing well and declined when it is not. Longer life expectancy during periods of economic decline was noted as early as the s, when William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas made this observation using American and British data.
In this scenario, death rates would be higher in a good economy because of the poor health conditions people experienced during a previous recession. And in turn, mortality would be lower in a bad economy because of the good conditions people experienced during the previous economic expansion.
Increased economic productivity often creates more pollution, which harms those who have the least access to health services and safe housing. Infants in particular are susceptible to poor environmental conditions; so higher levels of factors like air pollution can increase infant mortality.
There are no simple answers as to why the average lifespan increased during the Great Depression, or why U. But it does counter assumptions that as the economy goes, so goes the health of a nation. Start your free trial today. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! In addition, the New Deal the economic programs instituted between and to respond to the crisisand Prohibition may have also had positive effects on health.
Sarah Zielinski is an award-winning science writer and editor. She is a contributing writer in science for Smithsonian. Feedloader Clickability There's this somewhat counter-intuitive idea that economic downturns are good for your health.
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