The Postwar Economy of the 1950

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The Postwar Economy of the 1950s

• By Angela Brown

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Bellringer Think and Write

• Brainstorm a list of the inventions that would be
  completely new to a person from the 1950s if he
  or she were suddenly transported to the present.
• What modern invention do you think is the most
  important today?

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Business Reorganization

• U.S. embarked on one of its greatest periods of
  economic expansion
• GNP 212 billion in 1945 to 504 billion in 1960
• Per Capita income average income per person,
  increased from 1526 to 2788

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http//www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid42376405
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• GMs Ford, Chrysler controlled automobile
  industry
• General Electric and Westinghouse controlled
  electrical business

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• Giant corporations feared investing resources in
  a single business due to great Depression became
  Conglomerates large corporation that owns many
  smaller companies that produce entirely different
  goods and services

Is the second largest media conglomerate after
AOL Time Warner.
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http//www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/ILDESmcd.ht
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• 1954 Ray Kroc purchased Mac Donalds and built a
  nationwide chain
• Others quickly saw benefits in selling franchises
  the right to open a restaurant using a parent
  companys brand name and system

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Television
http//www.mousestars.com/steve/annette/afmouse1.h
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• By 1953 2/3 of all families owned a TV
• By 1955 watched 4 to 5 hours a day on average
• Howdy Doody, The Mickey Mouse Club, American
  Bandstand, I Love Lucy, and Father knows best

• Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith

http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//www.
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http//www.the-forum.com/advert/nesbitt.htm

• Three networks controlled TV programming .
• They raised money through advertising
• The companies got their monies worth America
  bought

http//atlantaantiquegallery.com/gallery/i-4920_ic
e_cream_sign_1950s.html
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The Computer Industry

• Grace Hopper, researcher at Harvard University
  computation lab created software that runs a
  computer.
• Hopper coined the phrase debugging
• She removed a moth
• 1948 Bell telephone lab invented transistor
  tiny circuit device that amplifies, controls, and
  generates signals

http//www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/grace_hopper_p
ortraits.htm
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• Giant machines that filled room could now fit on
  a desk due to transistor
• The Census Bureau purchased one of first computer
  systems for 1950 census

http//www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp
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Nuclear Power

• Generation of electrical power through the use of
  atomic energy resulted from research on atomic
  bomb
• 1957 first commercial nuclear power plant in
  Shippingport, Pennsylvania

• From 1940s to early 1970s fed government
  exposed as many at 1800 people to radiation in
  experiments that provided little to no medical
  benefit
• American citizens were used as nuclear
  calibration instruments

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Advances in Medicine

• 1954 Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis
  conducted successful test of Polio vaccine
  (killed or disabled 20,000 U.S. children every
  year)
• 1944 advances in production of antibiotics
  penicillin saved countless lives 1950s
  discovered other antibiotics
• Lessons learned in war allowed doctors to operate
  to correct heart defects

http//info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id
179categoryevents
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Changes in the Work Force

• By 1956 a majority of all American workers held
  white-collar jobs no longer produced goods but
  performed services at counters or in offices
• Workers were encouraged by working conditions but
  large corporations were impersonal
• Employers pressured employees to dress, think and
  act alike
• Blue Collar conditions also improved guaranteed
  cost-of-living increases
• 1955 33 of total labor forces AFL and CIO
  merged (American Federation of Labor Congress
  of Industrial Organizations)

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• Baby Boom of WWII continued
• 25 births per 1000 in peak year 1957

http//kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html
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Moving to the Suburbs

• WWII veterans enjoyed the Servicemens
  Readjustment Act of 1944 GI Bill- gave
  low-interest mortgages to purchase new homes
• Average Americans could afford to buy homes

http//www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwa
r/2146.jpg
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Levitt Towns

• Developers pioneered mass-production in home
  building
• Precut and preassembled materials built homes in
  weeks (William J. Levitt Levitttowns
• Some complained developments all looked alike
  Little Boxes through usually well-designed
  and well built

http//tigger.uic.edu/pbhales/Levittown/
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http//tigger.uic.edu/pbhales/Levittown.html
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Cars and Highways

• Stores moved from cities to shopping centers in
  suburbs
• Americans more dependent on automobile than
  public transportation new car designs every
  year

http//www.webshots.com/g/d2000/4-nw/9612.html
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• 1956 Interstate Highway Act provided 26 billion
  to build an interstate highway system more than
  40,000 miles long allowed for evacuation of
  major cities in event of emergency
• Drive-in movies inspired by car culture

http//www.wtv-zone.com/moe/moesboomerabilia/
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The Growth of Consumer Credit

• Gasoline companies offered credit cards to loyal
  customers
• Americans willingly went into debt to purchase
  products they wanted

http//history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/a/firstcred
itcard.htm
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http//www.dinersclubnewsroom.com/anniversary.cfm
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• Diners club card 1950 1959
• American Express Card Bank Americard (VISA)
• U.S. had become the affluent society

Frank X. McNamara.Courtesy of Diners Club.
http//history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/a/firstcred
itcard_2.htm