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The effects of consumerism on society post wwii
The effects of consumerism on society post wwii
Post war Consumerism
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After World War II subsided, American soldiers returned to a country different from the one they left years earlier. Wartime production drove America’s economy out of depression and Americans saw an unprecedented increase in spending power. This postwar society founded itself upon consumerism and conformity, transforming the middle and upper-middle class into a leisure class, the working class into the middle class, and classifying individuals by the items they own. “A Consumer’s Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America,” by Lizabeth Cohen details this new society and the New Yorker advertisements and short stories reflect upon the consumerism. The advertisements convey the life of luxury, leisure, and happiness that …show more content…
Yet, their lives were no longer in the same society as before. The United States consolidated their position as the world’s richest country. The automobile and housing industries flourished, major corporations grew, and the baby boom occurred. All the while, Americans moved to the suburbs, highways expanded, the use of televisions spread, and the construction of shopping centers began all across America (“The Postwar Economy: 1945-1960.”). There is one thing in common with every change to America stated above: they all involve consumerism. This is the theme detailed in Cohen’s book. America presented mass consumption as a “civic responsibility” to boost the economy, creating the idea that it was not a personal indulgence, but a duty to your country (Cohen). It was part of the Cold War machine, attempting to convince the world that this was capitalism and that it led to greatness and prosperity. However, she also described some of the downsides to this new way of life, the main one being debt. This consumerism rested on an unstable foundation and the use of credit led to higher consumer spending, but also led to increasingly higher and higher debt for Americans
In the essay The Chosen People, Stewart Ewen, discusses his perspective of middle class America. Specifically, he explores the idea that the middle class is suffering from an identity crisis. According to Ewen’s theory, “the notion of personal distinction [in America] is leading to an identity crisis” of the non-upper class. (185) The source of this identity crisis is mass consumerism. As a result of the Industrial Revolution and mass production, products became cheaper and therefore more available to the non-elite classes. “Mass production was investing individuals with tools of identity, marks of personhood.” (Ewen 187) Through advertising, junk mail and style industries, the middle class is always striving for “a stylistic affinity to wealth,” finding “delight in the unreal,” and obsessed with “cheap luxury items.” (Ewen 185-6) In other words, instead of defining themselves based on who they are on the inside, the people of middle class America define themselves in terms of external image and material possessions.
Calder’s Thesis for this book follows the development of American consumer culture from its unorganized infancy around the 1890’s to about the 1940’s. There are several references to credit and debt outside this range as a reference to where we started and w...
To an extent Britain’s post-war years could be described as affluent. Consumption patterns in the mid twentieth century included the emergence of new household goods as well as the popular dominance of the motor car. Amongst modernisation the term of ‘teenager’ emerged as one of Britain’s main consumers. Leisure patterns embraced the contemporary appliances such as the dominance of television, the choice of cinema showings as well as the effect of Americanisation. Consumerism fever invaded all sectors of society as more and more people had better paid jobs and more free time. However in describing Britain’s post-war society it is important how we define the terms. Consumption is how the British people absorbed the modern possessions of the household and how they influenced their free time. Consumption also includes how modern trappings affected peoples lives. Leisure patterns describe what seized the attention of the public as a whole and that most of the population had more time to spend as they wished. Affluence describes the prosperity of society and how they have a great deal of wealth. Although Britain did prosper during the post war period, it is inaccurate to describe British society as affluent.
This change, she argues, was largely a function of the shift to mass consumerism, rather than merely an effect of the Cold War (Cohen 8). The theoretical basis for these ideas were found, by Cohen, in earlier writers such as Thorstein Veblen, who developed the concept of ‘conspicuous consumption’ at the end of the 19th century, and economist Simon Patten, who showed how consumerism helped Americans to move beyond ethnic and racial barriers (Cohen 10). Other thinkers who developed these ideas, such as David Potter, E. Franklin Frazier, John Kenneth Galbraith and David Riesman also contribute to Cohen’s background of research, and the development of her thesis (Cohen 13). She uses her title “Consumer’s Republic” as a catch-all phrase describing the economic/political/cultural post-war effort to unite the country with shared values, and expand its economic prosperity and political
However, American consumerism was praised as contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life. People wanted televisions, cars, washing machines, refrigerators, toasters, and vacuum cleaners (PBA). Between 1945 and 1949, Americans purchased 20 million refrigerators, 21.4 million cars, and 5.5 million stoves (PBS).... ... middle of paper ...
After World War I and during the 1920s, America’s economy was growing to be the best in the world. Consumerism had led to the increase in purchases made by Americans and the amount of products that had been produced. Some of the consumer goods that were now in demand had included the automobile,
The growth that happened before the 1920’s made it possible for the U.S. to become a consumer-based society ("The Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900”). “Buy now, pay later,” became the main slogan of the twenties when credit was introduced into the market. Companies wanted middle class families to be able to afford the leisure’s of life just like the upper class. This idea was transformed into “credit.” Department Stores took part in this idea from the start along with installment plans.
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...
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.
At the end of World War II, American culture experienced an overhaul that ushered in a period of complacency beneath which paranoia seethed. A generation that had lived through the privations of the Depression and the horrors of world war was now presented with large suburban homes, convenient and impressive appliances, and pre-packaged entertainment. Such wonders so soon after extended hard times were greeted enthusiastically and even treated with a sense of awe. They may have encouraged few distinctions among the middle class -- the houses in a suburb were generally as identical as hamburgers at McDonald's -- but they represented a wealth to which few had before enjoyed access. Life became automated, with dishwashers cleaning up after dinner and air conditioning easing mid-summer heat. The new conveniences left more time for families to absorb the new mass culture presented through television, records, and Spillane novels. Excitement over the new conveniences and entertainment led America to increasingly become an acquiring society. To my parents' generation, childhood in the 50s was a time when people were generally pleased with themselves and with the...
As a result of the war, America felt a new patriotism. As the wealth of the country increased the people were inclined to celebrate their success. They also celebrated having a much easier life than in comparison to the hardship and compromises of the war years. This was evident in the products that were designed to save Americans time and effort. There was advertising particularly aimed at women in the home household products. The consumerist beliefs were perpetuated by the mass media, radio, television, cinema and print media. Household objects and celebrities faces were the way to sell these products. Art became visible to greater sections of the population and to lower classes. Because of its positioning, images were seen in conjunction with advertising and printed on clothing and acce...
Also, advertising arose during this time, along with the notion of “buy now and pay later”. All these things allow for these new middle-class families to live the “American Dream” and live a prosperous life, and in doing so they also spurred America’s economy.
The 1920’s brought many cultural changes that drastically contrasted with those of the 19th century. The Victorian era of the 19th century was a time of character, frugality, and religion. Ideas of the 20th century created a society of modern values. The “Roaring Twenties” was a time of luxury, consumerism and prosperity . New industries from the world war, and the invention of the moving assembly line raised the economy. Businesses flourished on the concept of pleasing the consumer’s needs and desires. Advertisers like Bruce Barton were “consumption engineers”; they gave moral advice while advertising their product to the consumer by portraying themselves as a friend helping out another friend . As America became a power house of production,
The Consumers’ Republic began in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt launched the New Deal to fix the American economy after the Great Depression. The New Deal allowed more government intervention to strategically invest in industries which created more production and jobs opportunities. The New Deal was slow to fix the Great Depression, but when World War II came into play in 1937 production was booming and many jobs were created due to the need for military production. This era, called the age of mass consumption or “The Golden Age of Capitalism”, revitalized the health of the American economy, but was also an ideological weapon in the political struggle of the Cold War era. The United States explained how the mass consumption of cars, new homes,
Whoever dies with most toys wins- Conspicuous consumption Conspicuous consumption in the 1920s was about at that time, people spending money, making money, and those left behind. Related Posts of "Conspicuous Consumption Definition | Investopedia" In the 1820’s, after the second industrial revolution, the economy of America enters a high speed development, industry overstep England became the first in the whole world. In the 1920s, after the World War1, because America was one of the victorious nations, the economy increased a lot, and that is one of the reasons that American people’s income increased, and the gross national income from 604 billion up to 821 billion dollars.