Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF AUTHORS
- LIST OF FIGURES
- LIST OF TABLES
- PREFACE
- 1 AN OVERVIEW
- 2 THE AUSTRALIAN RECOVERY OF THE 1930s IN INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
- 3 THE RECOVERY OF THE 1930s AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN BRITAIN
- 4 A MACRO INTERPRETATION OF RECOVERY: AUSTRALIA AND CANADA
- 5 DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY IN NEW ZEALAND
- 6 THE JAPANESE ECONOMY AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN THE 1930s
- 7 THE BATTLE OF THE PLANS: A MACROECONOMETRIC MODEL OF THE INTERWAR ECONOMY
- 8 AUSTRALIAN BUDGETARY POLICIES IN THE 1930s
- 9 MONETARY POLICY IN DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY
- 10 SHARING THE BURDEN: THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR MARKET DURING THE 1930s
- 11 MANUFACTURING AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN AUSTRALIA, 1932–1937
- 12 AGRICULTURE AND THE RECOVERY FROM THE DEPRESSION
- 13 UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY OF THE 1930s
- 14 GOVERNMENT UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF IN THE 1930s: AID OR HINDRANCE TO RECOVERY?
- 15 UNEQUAL SACRIFICE: DISTRIBUTIONAL ASPECTS OF DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY IN AUSTRALIA
- REFERENCES
- INDEX
14 - GOVERNMENT UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF IN THE 1930s: AID OR HINDRANCE TO RECOVERY?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF AUTHORS
- LIST OF FIGURES
- LIST OF TABLES
- PREFACE
- 1 AN OVERVIEW
- 2 THE AUSTRALIAN RECOVERY OF THE 1930s IN INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
- 3 THE RECOVERY OF THE 1930s AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN BRITAIN
- 4 A MACRO INTERPRETATION OF RECOVERY: AUSTRALIA AND CANADA
- 5 DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY IN NEW ZEALAND
- 6 THE JAPANESE ECONOMY AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN THE 1930s
- 7 THE BATTLE OF THE PLANS: A MACROECONOMETRIC MODEL OF THE INTERWAR ECONOMY
- 8 AUSTRALIAN BUDGETARY POLICIES IN THE 1930s
- 9 MONETARY POLICY IN DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY
- 10 SHARING THE BURDEN: THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR MARKET DURING THE 1930s
- 11 MANUFACTURING AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN AUSTRALIA, 1932–1937
- 12 AGRICULTURE AND THE RECOVERY FROM THE DEPRESSION
- 13 UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY OF THE 1930s
- 14 GOVERNMENT UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF IN THE 1930s: AID OR HINDRANCE TO RECOVERY?
- 15 UNEQUAL SACRIFICE: DISTRIBUTIONAL ASPECTS OF DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY IN AUSTRALIA
- REFERENCES
- INDEX
Summary
Introduction
The burden of capitalism in crisis is borne by those who possess insufficient financial reserves to cope with a prolonged disruption of income. In the 1930s a number of socio-economic groups found themselves in this critical position including farmers in marginal areas, unskilled workers in cities, small-scale urban businessmen and females and youths without family support. As the months passed, growing numbers of individuals and households were drawn into the vortex of poverty from which many were unable to escape until the end of the decade. And as the scale of poverty increased, the remedial response of the Australian community changed radically.
With growing unemployment, the response of the Australian community passed through a number of stages: initially the unemployed attempted to maintain earlier consumption patterns by drawing on their savings (Butlin, Hall & White 1971); with the exhaustion of these reserves, many families were forced out of their homes and into substandard accommodation in urban slums or temporary dwellings in the bush where they survived by fishing, hunting and gardening (Bolton 1972, pp. 186–217); private charity, which was made available from the first to those who were unable to help themselves, was soon stretched beyond its limits (Dickey 1980, pp. 157–63); and as the problem overwhelmed privately-organized relief, local and State governments reluctantly provided food relief, sustenance payments and, finally, relief works on a large scale.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Recovery from the DepressionAustralia and the World Economy in the 1930s, pp. 311 - 334Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989