(4a) Economic transformation

Question 1

In 1945 how much of the worlds population did the USA have compares to its global income?

Answer 1

USA had 7% of world’s population, but 42% of global income.

Question 2

What was the USAs income per capita compared to Britain?

Answer 2

Per capita income: $1,450. Almost 2x Britain

Question 3

How many calories a day did the Average American consume compared to Europeans?

Answer 3

Average American consumer 3,000 calories a day, 50% more than Europeans

Question 4

How had car production increased by from 1946 to 1955?

How many companies were offering new jobs?

Answer 4

1946 car production was 2 million and by 1955 this had increased to 8 million

By 1960 there were almost 4,000 offering new job opportunities for unskilled and semi-skilled workers

Question 5

What new employment opportunities arose after the War?

Answer 5

Developing aeronautical engineering

Opportunities in computing

Opportunities also in chemicals industry and electrical goods

Demand for white collar workers (office / skilled worked)

The number of jobs in professional and technological work

Question 6

What was the impact of new employment opportunities?

Answer 6

Developing aeronautical engineering meant that some jobs were becoming more skilled and with that higher wages were offered.

Demand for white collar workers (office / skilled worked) in 1956 outnumbered the need for blue collar workers for the first time.

Question 7

How much did the number of salaries middle-class workers rise by between 1947 and 1957?

Answer 7

61%

Question 8

Where employment opportunities equal?

Answer 8

Increasing demand for workers mainly favoured men, with female workers experiencing gender prejudice and discrimination

Question 9

What was the uneven distribution of wealth like after WW2?

Answer 9

1947,
33% of US homes lacked running water,
40% lacked flush toilets

Question 10

How did homeownership change?

Answer 10

Many families rented:

1950 home ownership 55%, 1960 rose to 62%

Question 11

What new industries emerged from WW2?

Answer 11

Nuclear physics aerospace, electronics and chemicals

Question 12

What was the ‘military industrial complex’

What big companies benefited from this?

Answer 12

The ‘military industrial complex’ saw large areas of desert used for military testing, and large factories converted to armament production. This began during WW2, but set the USA up well for Cold War military spending and development

General Motors, McDonnell Douglas Aircraft and the Dow Chemical Corporation

Question 13

how much did government spending into fields such as plastics were increase by?

Answer 13

600% in the 1050’s

Question 14

What was the military defence budget in the 1950’s?

Answer 14

$40-50 billion

Question 15

What was the reduced role of trade unions after 1945?

What % of the workforce went on strike at some point in 1946?

Answer 15

In 1945, 35.5% of the American workforce were members of a union, the highest ever in American history. After the war ended wartime price controls were lifted and inflation started to rise.

This led to discontent and a wave of strikes for higher wages were carried out. In 1946, about 10% of the workforce went on strike at some point.

Question 16

When was the Taft-harlry act ?

Answer 16

1947

Question 17

What did the Taft-Harlry act do?

Answer 17

which limited the power of the unions in favour of employers.

=Outlawed the closed shop - where people in a particular industry have to be in a union
=Outlawed secondary strikes - where workers strike in support of others in an industrial dispute.
=Made it more difficult to call a strike and the right for employers to sue unions.
=Union leaders had to swear they were non-communist.

=The Act also gave the president the power to prevent strikes that were against the national interest.

Question 18

What is the cause of grater mobility?

Answer 18

Growth in the car industry

Question 19

How did the car industry grow?

Answer 19

=In 1950 USA produced two thirds of the world’s cars and trucks

+1946 to 1955 saw production of cars in America quadruple: car and truck production by 1955 being 9.2 billion.

=The big three corporations General Motors, Ford and Chrysler totally dominated the industry.

=Helped by advertising just like 1920s

Question 20

What was the impact of the car industry on feeder industries?

Answer 20

Benefitted the industries producing materials for cars, as well synthetic rubber first produced during WW2

Development of more highways and construction industries

Question 21

What was the Green Book?

Answer 21

The Green Book was the “Negro motorists huidebook” to travelling through Jim Crow America. The book provided a rundown of hotels, guest houses, service stations, drug stores, taverns, barber shops and restaurants that were known to be safe ports of call for African American travelers

First published in 1936, the Green Book was the brainchild of a Harlem-based postal carrier named Victor Hugo Green.

Question 22

What was the impacts of the car industries?

Answer 22

benefited feeder industries
Growth of domestic tourism
Growth of suburbs

Question 23

How did the car industry impact domestic tourism?

Answer 23

Americans could now drive to areas throughout America. As in the 20s, this encouraged domestic tourism which boosted local economies

Question 24

How did the car industry impact the growth of the suburbs?

Answer 24

Owning a car meant people had more freedom of choice about where to live. Many opted to move away from industrial areas and towns into the suburbs

Question 25

What did the GI Bill of rights include?

Answer 25

=Grants to veterans to improve their education, learn new skills or set up a business on returning from war

=$2,000 loan for starting business

=The Federal Housing Authority gave support to veterans wanting to buy their own home with mortgages of up to 90%, and low interest

Question 26

Due to the GI Bill of rights how many home loans had been made?

What was the value of this?

Answer 26

By 1956, 4.3 million home loans had been made with a combined value of $33 billion.

Question 27

Due to the GI Bill of rights how many returning servicemen attended colleges and technical schools using grants provided?

Answer 27

7.8 million returning servicemen just over half attended colleges and technical schools using grants provided by the GI Bill.

Question 28

from 1944 to the end of the GI Bill in 1956 what was the cost to the federal government?

Answer 28

$14.5 billion

Question 29

How did homeownership change bu 1960’s?

Answer 29

Americans owning their own home increased from 50% in 1945 to 60% by 1960.

Question 30

How did the number of Americans living in the suburbs change?

Answer 30

Americans living in the suburbs went from 17% in 1920 to 33% by 1960

Question 31

How many Americans moved out of cities?

Answer 31

18 million Americans moved out of cities: “white flight”, and growth of the middle class

Question 32

How did the number of suburban houses change?

Answer 32

almost doubled

Question 33

Who was significant in the growth of suburbs?

Answer 33

William Levitt, New York State, significant for the growth of suburbs

Question 34

What did William Levitt do?

How many houses were built?
How many were occupied from 1947 to 1953?

Answer 34

1947 Levitt bought 1,200 acres of farmland on Long Island, New York, where he built 10,600 houses; these homes were quickly purchased and occupied by more than 40,000 people. By 1953, 70,000 lived there

Question 35

What type of house was most common in the suburbs?

Answer 35

Mass produced houses using prefabricated door frames, walls and window frames that could be easily put together ‘on site’. Standard white picket fencing, fitted kitchens and a green lawn.

Question 36

How did ‘Levittown’ made life in the suburbs attractive?

What kind of price did they cost?

Answer 36

by including swimming pools, schools, athletic fields and tennis courts.

Levittown houses in the Pennsylvania development started at $6,990.

Question 37

What were the limitations to suburban housing boom?

Answer 37

=Some criticised the suburbs for their lack of variety and their conformity especially in regards to the Levittown projects

=Urban centres and small shopkeepers lost business as people moved away or began to travel for their shopping. New shopping malls were built near new housing developments with restaurants and cinemas.

=Condition of housing in inner city area began to deteriorate

Question 38

What were the negatives to suburban housing to black Americans?

What did this start to change?

Answer 38

=Levittown and other areas in America did not accept black Americans and black Americans often faced problems obtaining mortgages.

+Not until 1960s the US courts
declared racial discrimination and segregation in housing illegal after MLK’s March on Washington in 1963.

Question 39

What was the average family income in 1953?

How was this different in the suburbs?

Answer 39

Average family income reached $4,011 per year in 1953.

In the suburbs, average family income 70% more at $6,500

Question 40

What did the baby boom lead to?

Answer 40

Due to the baby boom, demand for baby and children’s clothing increased. By 1957 nappies became a $50 million per year industry.

Question 41

By 1956 was did many Americans spend there leisure time doing?

Answer 41

Americans were spending their extra leisure time watching TV, homes were filled with labour saving devices and white goods.

Question 42

By 1951, ….. of American families had fridges, ….. had washing machines and telephones.

Answer 42

By 1951, 90% of American families had fridges, 75% had washing machines and telephones, goods which were often paid for using credit.

Question 43

What new products were introduced during the 1950’s?

Answer 43

mong other new products introduced during this period were frozen and convenience foods such as TV dinners, LP records, Polaroid cameras and electric clothes dryer.

Question 44

In the early 50s America consumed ….% of all of the goods in the world and controlled ……% of the world’s productive capacity

Answer 44

In the early 50s America consumed 33% of all of the goods in the world and controlled 66% of the world’s productive capacity

Question 45

How did the amount of debt increase by from 1945 to 1960?

Answer 45

The amount of debt in America increased from $5.7 billion in 1945 to $56.1 billion in 1960