Consumerism in Post World War II
After WWII why did the economy prosper and what role did consumerism play in the 1950s?
After WWII many economists predicted a recession in the American economy. It is easy to do so when at the peak of post war unemployment in March 1946 2.7 million searched for work. In 1945 people were laid off from their jobs. However, “ in 1945 the US entered one of its longest, steadiest, periods of growth and prosperity” (Norton 829). How could this be? With many new developments affecting the United State’s social and economic behavior, the wealth of the nation burgeoned. It is the extreme wealth of this society which supports and creates consumerism, the “Americans’ [increased] appetite for goods and services” (Norton 832). The automobile, television and rising personal income contributed to enhanced consumerism. The American economy in the 1950s is simply defined by increased output and increased demand. The primary economist of the 1950s was John Kenneth Galbraith. According to Galbraith’s The Affluent Society, the economy’s production proliferation in the 1950s created consumerism, forming a beneficial relationship that would serve each others’ needs.
Galbraith states that the drive for economic security motivated corporations to increase production. Men seek to extinguish insecurity and establish economic security. Economic insecurity is only natural in a competitive society. A corporation can experience a vicissitude of fortunes. There are uncontrollable risks that accompany business. That is why, “the elimination of economic insecurity was pioneered by the business firm . . . From the very beginning of modern capitalist society, business men have addressed themselves t...
... middle of paper ...
...iversity of Chicago Press, 1997.
French, Michael. US Economic History Since 1945. New York: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Galbraith2, John Kenneth. American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power.
New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Affluent Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1969.
Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. Ed. James L. Pate. Bicentennial Edition. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1975.
Norton, Mary Beth. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Schor, Juliet. Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Ed. Roger Rosenblatt. Washington D.C: Island Press, 1999.
Zunz, Olivier. Why the American Century? Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Morrison, Samuel E. The Oxford History of the American People, vol. 1. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994. Sun Tzu.
Eibling, Harold H., et al., eds. History of Our United States. 2nd edition. River Forest, Ill: Laidlaw Brothers, 1968.
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
Edward, Rebecca and Henretta, James and Self, Robert. America A Concise History. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
Davidson, J. W., Delay, B., et al. (2005). Nation of nations: a narrative history of the American Republic (6th ed., Vol. 2). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America: A Concise History. Vol. 1. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
Norton, Beth, et al. A People and a Nation. 8th. 1. Mason, OH: 2009. 41-42, 65-67,161,173.
Zinn, H. (1980). A people's history of the united states. (2003 ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America a Concise History. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States Volume 1: American Beginnings to Reconstruction. New York: The New Press, 2003. Book.
On the heels of war, new technology caused a decrease in prices of goods in the 1920’s and in the 1950’s the GI Bill increased income. The bureaucratization of business in the 1920’s meant that more people could be employed in higher paying white-collar jobs than before, including, for the first time, housewives. This new income combined with the reduced prices for goods that resulted from mechanized production, assembly lines and a general decrease of the cost of technology created a thriving consumerist middle class that went on to fuel the economy in all sectors, especially the upper classes. Likewise, during World War II Americans saved up around 150 billion dollars, and this sum combined with the income of the GI Bill allowed normal people to buy expensive things, from houses to cars to electronics to educations at a rapid rate, fueling the trademark prosperity of the 1950’s. The new automobile culture of the 50’s spawned new businesses that catered to mobile Americans, such as nicer and more standardized hotels like Holiday Inn, and drive-up restaurants like McDonalds. Just as the culture of the 1920’s was transfo...
Davidson, James West, et al. The American Nation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003
Brennan, Linda Crotta. The Birth of the United States. Ann Arbor: Cherry Lake, 2011. Print.
Zinn, Howard. A Peoples History of the United States. New York: HaperCollins Publisher Inc., 1999. 25-33.