Supply and demand helped bring about and also lengthen the Great Depression. The American farms and factories produced large amounts of goods and products during the prosperity before the Depression. On average people's wages stayed the same even as prices for these goods soared. People who lived on farms had even less than urban dwellers.
Because people had no money, they stopped buying these products, but factories and farms still continued to produce at the same rate. As the farmers and industry leaders realized fewer people were buying, they cut back production. To do this, they had to lay off more and more workers. These unemployed workers didn't have money to buy anything, so the factories continued to lay off people. This trend continued in a downward spiral until twenty-five per cent of the population was unemployed.
