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A major part of the 50s & 60s boom was the fact that most of the industrial nations had been turned into rubble in the 40s and the US hadn't. Once the 70s rolle
by pnathan 10y ago
A major part of the 50s & 60s boom was the fact that most of the industrial nations had been turned into rubble in the 40s and the US hadn't. Once the 70s rolled around, the US manufacturers came to grips with serious competition. Some did better than others.
Further, housing for GIs in the 40s and 50s was subsidized, thus changing the entire housing equation, and, further, women had not entered the workforce in large numbers, and, further, we require many more safety features on cars.
These factors all are major portions of the story when comparing against your prototypical factory worker story, and mean that a simple narrative of Unions => Better Life doesn't work. Although unions do need to become much stronger in American life, they won't unspool us back to the prior era.
and, tacking a paragraph on in my edit: probably want to talk to some black people about how great those years were. It's entirely plausible that some of the White American prosperity was due to heavily underpaying the Black Americans and treating them very poorly.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoAs I often argue, America has been laden with unfair advantages for centuries. Vast land was easy to steal when 9/10 natives died from disease. The others lacked equivalent technology and weaponry. Slavery ensured the newly established federal government made good on its debts. A good credit score means a SHITTON for the success of any state. Abundant (stolen) land with loads of natural resources settled at the time industrialization ramped up. Lucky. Literal boatloads of immigrants from all over the world prop up the population, increase production, and suppress wages. Great for industrial growth (like china recently). And that's all before the 20th century.
- Apocryphon 10y agoWell, what about the post-Cold War prosperity of the '90s then?
- pnathan 10y agoThat's a good question, and I haven't really read enough history/economics regarding that time period to piece together an intelligent answer with the nuances needed. Among other things, I think it's too soon to really look back and see how the threads connected and disconnected with any dispassionate analysis. Once the signal figures of the era die off with their passions, we can start taking breaths that aren't colored by their factions. That said: one factor is that computers started really becoming available to businesses, so you really had an automation boom. one factor is the cold war ended, which changed... a lot of things, including capital flows. That capital shuffling may have helped prosperity. one factor is the boomers hit their financially most productive years.