the affluent society america in the 1950’s. america after the war celebration…. and...
TRANSCRIPT
The Affluent Society
America in the 1950’s
America after the War
• Celebration…. and
DEMOBILIZATION
• 1945 – 12m military• 1947 -- 1.6m military
Demobilization
• War industries convert to peace production– Autos, TV's, household appliances, cameras
• War-time price controls/rationing removed– Prices rise
• Increased demand– Inflation sky rockets1945-1947– Labor Strikes (5 million strikers 1946)
• Truman’s Fair Deal– Taft-Hartley Act
• Limits union power
• Many women exit the labor market
The Economy Grows in the 50’s
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
billions of dollars
Year
GNP Gross National Product
1940
1950
1960
“Real Income – up 20% 1950--1960
Consumer Society• 1950’s We were 6% of the world’s
population, producing and consuming 50% of the world’s products.
Why were the 50’s so prosperous?
• Rise in real income/savings from WWII
• “Pent-up” demand– Little consumer spending WWII/Great Depression
• New Technologies
• GI Bill
GI Bill of Rights Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944
• Provides funds for education for Veterans– an estimated 2.2 million
veterans received education at colleges and universities
– A total of 7.8 million veterans, or 50.5 percent of the World War II veteran population, received training or education under the bill.
GI Bill
• Funds Home Loans– Over 2 million loans by
1950– Housing starts:
• 1944 -114,000• 1950 - 1.7 million
• Home ownership increases to 62% of the population by 1960
New Jobs• Construction
• Government Jobs
• Education
More New Jobs• “White collar” jobs
– Big Business– Finance– Advertising
(mostly white and male) • Service Industry
– Insurance– Transportation– Retail– Hospitality
• MacDonald’s• Holiday Inns
– Service and repair workers (service jobs > manufacturing jobs)
– A shift from producing goods to providing servicesA shift from producing goods to providing services
Why were the 50’s so prosperous?
• “Bigger is Better” efficiencies in industry– IBM sales grow 10x between 1946-1961– GM doubles its assets to $2.8 billion in 1960
• Conglomerates-large companies with holdings in unrelated industries, brought about by business mergers
– benefit: company could grow without violation of anti-trust law– Example: General Electric, Berkshire-Hathaway, Time-Warner, Phillip-Morris
Farms Become Big Business
• Small family farms replaced by agribusiness corporations.– Cost efficiencies on larger farms– Expense of new technologies– Pesticide/Synthetic fertilizers
• 1940 to 1960– Farm size doubles– Total farms: 6 million to 4 million (2.3 million now)
– Farm population: 30 million to 13 million
Mobility
• Post-war shifts in population– To “Sunbelt”– Rural to Urban
(20% of American moved each year of the 50s)
• The “Automobile Culture”– 58 million cars purchased during the 1950s– Highway Act of 1956
• $32 billion to build 40,000 miles of roads• Interstate Highway System
Supporting Businesses
Suburbia
Small, mass-produced homes that the middle-class can afford
“Sunbelt” Growth