Urban America- Great Depression and 2008 Recession

What I find very interesting about these two images is how they both show how much time has passed. In the first, we see the "beginning" of urban America, the construction of the first huge skyscrapers. This image was taken in 1932, during the Great Depression. Yet, this image does not show poverty or misery, but hope. These men have jobs and are earning money by building these huge buildings that we today associate with the cities of America. Although the Great Depression was a hard and difficult time for so many Americans from all different classes, this image shows how America was still a very young country and was expanding and developing, even through a very hard time for the country. I am not saying that this time was easier than it seemed as this would be historically inaccurate, but this image shows how America still had a lot of hope and promise.

Comparing the first image with the second, there's a very different feeling in this image to the first one. The cities in America have now had most of their skyscrapers built and finished, such as the building in the first image, but the feeling of hope is not as obvious in this image. Yes there are large buildings in the back but then it is foreshadowed by the poverty, the decrepit shack in the front of the image, showing how America has struggled with the latest recession. Many became jobless and even homeless after the recession, similar to many individuals in the 1930s, and were forced to live in shacks like this in large cities. Many are still living in these awful conditions in urban America and it begs the questions, how can people still be living in these awful conditions when its 2015 and is America in a worse state, poverty wise, compared to the 1930s?