Re: The Pages of Punch
1932: Punch Recognises the Great Depression
This cartoon is by no means meant to be taken as a joke. The readers of Punch would have been aware of what had been happening to the British (and indeed the world) economy by 1932. This cartoon served to reassure them that other readers were experiencing similar loss of disposable income.
Their deprivation would not be remotely like those who were suffering from years of dire hardship due to unemployment especially in the industrial cities. There was nothing like the same safety net as there is today. The misery then experienced was far more intense.
The two ladies in the cartoon and the readers of Punch they represented would not have been likely to suffer directly from unemployment. (Those that did would in time cease to be readers.) Probably the biggest cause of income reduction would have been the effect of reduced dividends as the economy shrank.
It was not until the late 1930s that some sort of recovery began to take place. It was only with the outbreak of war in 1939 that unemployment was finally eliminated. In the meantime Punch had to soldier on with what I would guess was a reduced readership. The need to tighten one’s belt would make the odd appearance along with the usual fare to act as a welcome distraction.