1930's/2008

The Great Depression:



This image shows that during the 1930's many people who were unemployed found it very hard to get food and that The Great Depression hit the U.S hard, and had a huge impact in people's lives. The amount of people that were out of work during this time shows us that it was not necessarily the individuals fault, but the unstable economy of the country or even the government.

Recent Recession: 


Helping the homeless in New York City (2008)

This image shows that during 2008 (and still nowadays), people were homeless and most probably unemployed. This is because of the recession that hit the U.S in 2008 which made many people struggle financially, struggle to find jobs and were generally a lot worse off than before 2008. 

The differences between these two images include the severity of the recession because in The Great Depression image there are a huge number of people who are homeless and need food, whereas in the 2008 image there is only one person on their own, showing that homelessness is less of an issue in the 21st Century.

Another difference in the two images is that during The Great Depression there was help from the government as well as private funding, whereas in the 2008 image the man is on a random street in New York City and not with other homeless people getting help/food. The fact that ordinary people in the community are providing support for this man shows that unlike the 1930's, in 2008 the government won't and doesn't offer any support like funding for food banks or welfare/benefits.    

There are similarities between the two images as the first one shows people of many different job industries and it is not obvious whether any of them have education or not, but because the numbers of unemployed during this time was so high, it must have affected a range of people, including people with education. And this is interesting because it provides us with an understanding that in the 1930's it didn't matter so much if you had an education or not because The Great Depression was so great. The same thing is the same for the second image, because the homeless man seems to have books, and possibly an education, showing that even in the 21st Century even with an education you won't necessarily get a job in the recession and it does affect a wide range of people just like The Great Depression. The only difference though is the amount of help you get from the government.

Both images show that not every single person in the country is employed or able to provide for themselves, with food and/or shelter. However, judging just by these images, they show that in modern times unemployment and homelessness effects individuals rather than The Great Depression which effected a mass amount of people such as families. Both images are also anti-social as they both question the ideology of the American Dream.



Sources:
www.socialwelfarehistory.com 
en.wikipedia.org