The Postwar Economy

1
The Postwar Economy

• Key Question How did advances in the post war
  economy contribute to the 1950s value of
  conformity?

2
Conformity

• What does conformity mean? Knowing what you know
  so far about history, why were people so eager to
  conform?

3
Spending money

• Soldiers wanted to forget the war
• People saved money during the war
• Looking to buy things that they were denied
  during the war and depression
• Per capita income increased from 1,526 to 2,788
  (1945 to 1960)

4
Different ways of doing business

• Conglomerates
• Large corporation that owned many small different
  companies
• Safety in diversification
• Franchises
• Gave individuals the chance to own a business
  with a small amount of money but with the support
  of a large parent company
• Contributed to chains replacing small, unique
  stores

5
Television

• Two-thirds of American families had TVs by 1953
• Three major networks controlled TV programming
• People were bombarded with advertising

6
New Technology

• Computers
• Transistors- smaller, more efficient machines
• Nuclear power
• Peaceful use of atomic power
• Medicine
• Polo vaccine
• Advancements in antibiotics and heart surgery

7
Work Force

• Machine replaced many factory workers
• White collar vs. blue collar
• Employers pressured employees to dress and act a
  certain way
• Service vs. manufacturing
• Employees lost the connection with their product

8
Babies and houses

• More money and stable jobs baby boom
• Bigger families need for bigger housing
• GI Bill - allowed veterans to get low interest
  loans
• Levittowns- houses began looking the same

9
Baby Boom

• The Baby Boom happened as a result of economic
  prosperity. How did it also contribute to the
  economic boom?

10
Cars

• Cars were a big part of peoples entertainment
  and culture
• Drive-in movies
• Drive-in and drive thru restaurants
• Roadside billboards
• Road trips

11
Credit Cards

• First designed as an easy way for people to pay
  for gas across the country
• People felt stable so were willing to accrue debt
• Added to the idea that the more stuff one had,
  the more successful they were