From the time period of 1870 to 1900 the growth of big businesses in the United States had a major impact on the economy, politics, and the response of Americans of Americans to these changes. These businesses grew significantly in number, size, and influence and had an ever-lasting effect on Americans and their surrounding community. Industry and its new technologies have had an amazing impact on reducing the costs of the goods necessary to life, such as food prices, fuel and lighting prices, and the cost of living (Document A). The standard of living of most Americans should have increased, as more wages would be left over to spend on luxuries. Aware of the extra-money available to working families, the different pieces of a Big Business have acted in such a way to suck that extra-money from the poor families.
The factory system affected American life in many ways. First, it helped the American economy grow because goods were cheaper, more people could buy them. As people bought more, the factories needed more workers and more workers meant more people who were earning money to buy things. Second, the factory system contributed to the growth of cities. A single factory might hire thousands of workers.
Communications revolution – number of telephone doubled/ number of radios increased from 60,000 to 10 million. Stock market – Wall Street boomed (a 'bull' market) with many people buying shares to make a profit. Many new businesses were 'floated' on the stock market such as skyscrapers, highways and urban development. Skyscrapers became a symbol of wealth and boom in America in 1920’s this was showing that the prosperity was shared across the country The industry boomed for several reasons such as; Population growing rapidly increased demand for consumer goods. Abundant raw materials such as coal iron and oil allowed cheap
One of them was installment buying. Installment buying is the action of buying products by promising to pay small regular amounts over a period of time. It made it possible for people to buy more products such as radios and television, even if they weren’t rich. This didn’t only benefit the people it also benefitted the companies. People were buying more goods they were earning more money.
Workers were making enough money to have some leisure spending and time, and industries were taking advantage of this by catering to these new audiences. [6] Americans threw out their old values
The United States saw many changes during the post war years that contributed to a new way of life in America. American citizens were worried they would fall back into the economic and emotional stress that the depression had brought. But instead, the post-war allowed economical, political, emotional growth and changes to the United States and its citizens. It affected the American way of life back then and still affecting us today. Following the WWII the economy boomed in several ways.
Running Head: THE ROARING TWENTIES 1 The Roaring Twenties What Made it Roar? THE ROARING TWENTIES 2 Following severe post war depression in the 1920s, the American economy was booming. The 1920s saw new discoveries that became the foundation of thriving businesses. New businesses and production methods allowed large profits of new factories and higher wages. This booming period of economic expansion was often referred to as the “Roaring Twenties”.
American’s had nothing but to be happy and optimistic for the future post World War II. Families who had been separated were finally brought back together and some families were together for the first time since the beginning of the war. The economy was booming thanks to the jobs security the war had offered and also because of the savings families were able to save during the wartime. There was a new housing boom, “home ownership had grown 53 percent in 1945 to 62 percent in 1962,” (Nash 641) the growth of the housing market was a direct response the GI Bill of 1944. During postwar America not only the housing industry was booming but there was also a boom in population, today we still refer to this as the “baby boom”.
These early ideas made it possible for the different views of the rich and working class to have their own set representation as needed when capitalism, or free market enterprise, and common wealth made its way into American economy. Free market enterprise was a way for the artisans, or skilled workers, to make money by producing and selling their products. As technology advanced and more inventions were being created there also came better, cheaper, and faster ways of producing mass amounts of the same products. Factories and new means of transportation made it possible for industrialization to make a rise and excel American economy. While business was great for the owners of these companies and those who could afford better living it was a completely different story for the factory workers and artisans.
Building on the economic base left after the war, American society became more affluent in the postwar years than most Americans could have imagined in their wildest dreams before or during the war. Public policy, like the so-called GI Bill of Rights passed in 1944, provided money for veterans to attend college, to purchase homes, and to buy farms. The overall impact of such public policies was almost incalculable, but it certainly aided returning veterans to better themselves and to begin forming families and having children in unprecedented