aMERICAN CAPITALISM Flashcards
According to Professor Hyman, Henry Ford valued an economy of “production and skilled labor over a world of consumption and deskilled labor.” Yet his success was built on de-skilling labor and on turning a luxury good – automobiles – into an essential consumer good. Why do you think Ford misapprehended the world he had done so much to create?
He had his own strict ideas. He thought his workers where skilled. Or he dehumanised them over time…after all with his control of kicking out drunkards and those who did not pay childsupport - he wanted only moral good citizens.
So either his workers where skilled (not unskilled) and moral.
or he saw them as subhumans as a part of his machine.
There was basically mind gymnastics in his brain to align what he thought of. and reality.
Main reasons why these chain stores like piggly wiggly increased?
As there became a surplus of what people could consume there were barriers to empowering consumers to buy things. Chain stores broke down many barriers. Chains bought in volume directly from manufacturers. These stores eliminated things such as credit and delivery. Stores also became self-service, adopted centralized checkouts, and generally became more convenient.
mvment v. this A & M and other retailers…How much shops did they have in 1920s? what transition happened.
ppl bought more. The money went outside, it was no longer regional nor for the town.
A n M had 16k shops. 4 to 20 percent of market from 1904 to 1920.
400 organizations existed against this loss of the unique local shops. A law for a progressive tax per state which would have killed the most loathed (A n M). but did not pass.
A transition to franchise. to lower prices. less clerks needing to work. money to “wall street”.
Consequences of world war 2 in america?
Well it was called the good war…employment was 1 procent in 44. unions where succesful…the top 1 % tier did only get 14 procent of the riches while in 1928 got like 30. They produced 50 percent of all industrial stuff at the end of the war. and provided all tanks to russia who defeats the nazis on land and 1/4 of equipment to gb.
So their economy was the best one during ww2.
how production for ww2 america worked.
The war effort was a large public-private partnership. The government created a number of new organizations that linked CEOs with policy makers. Among these organizations were the War Labor Board, which maximized production efficiency, and the Office of price administration, which set consumer prices throughout the economy.
Poswar 2 economy in the US? how did it look like.
Stability became highly prized in the postwar years. Corporations were primarily focused on minimizing risk instead of maximizing profits. “Planners” who developed their skills as strategic planners during the war redesigned corporations after the war and helped generate stability within corporations.
They learned managerial science in the universities.
Unions and post ww2? what happened after v day v. Japan?
Strikes! massive strikes for 12 days….kept quiet during war for patriotism.
The super power felt fragile and contested. Fear of communism.
There where only big companies the small ones died out in ww2 and therefore also big union. 33% worked there cp. to pre war maybe 15%,
This lead to changes, a legal “act” Taft Hartley.
Taft Hartley act after ww2 america.
Union members had to write anti communism affidavit. diminishing radical elements in the unions.
banned secondary strike, i.e. other unions could not join striking.
Closed union shops banned…. plus open union shops decided on state basis.
This changed radicality and they had to just follow. But got the “good life” of bread and butter. leisure time and vacation and decent salaries even pension. “the good life that john l lews. But no means to change society where winds of communism blew around the world. eg. truman did not get more than 30 % 46.
What is a union shop (us economy). and what types are there.
The employer must hire union members in various ways.
Closed union shop - can only hire union members
Open union shop - open hire but members must sign union within time period or be fired.
open - people dont have to be members and dont have to join.
As used in U.S.
What about Thaft Harley? when passed? what did it contain?
The Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947, required union members to sign an anticommunist affidavit. Failing to sign could prevent unions from using the power of the NLRB to enforce contracts. People who signed such an affidavit and were found to be communists could also be guilty of perjury and sent to jail. The Taft-Hartley Act thus led to the purging of radicals and communists within unions. A more moderate union movement emerged in its wake and the “Treaty of Detroit” was a reflection of the new union movement.
Conglomerates began to struggle or collapse in the late 1960s for which of the following reasons:
Complex accounting made many conglomerates appear to be successful when they were in fact not very successful. Many Wall Street analysts gradually lost faith in conglomerates and they came to be known as “paper pyramids of finance”. With the end of the 1960s bull market conglomerates lost the ability to finance their debt-ridden operations and many conglomerates collapsed.
story of containers for transport.
The United States military started using container ships during the Vietnam War. The use of containers became normal throughout the American economy because of the size and impact of the American defense industry. All companies with involvement in the industry were forced to adapt. Eventually the efficiency of containers was recognized throughout the entire global economy.
Story of containers, what is it in potency?
who started it?
like trains in the I dunno 1830s? and camels in during the 1300s silkroads.
A Mcglean a successstory from truckdriver to seeing this problem of having to load for 4 days w 150 men to then 8h with 14men altough u need some heavy tech with cranes
When did container moving start, and how was the third country using it. and how was it used to its first nation recipient
U.s wanted to do fast and secure shipping since it was a tricky place to do the off-loading of goods.
FIrst commercial port was with Japan and Mgleans seaport co. first selling weapons and electronic consumer goods. i.e. expensive stuffs.
IBM in post ww2 and in the 60s.
Size and what did they do?
IBM computers had an enormous impact for a variety of companies and became increasingly desirable in the postwar years. However, these computers were not intended for personal use. There were only 6,000 mainframe computers in the country in 1960 and 67,000 in 1968.
a. It utilized transistor technology, which had been developed in Bell Labs. b. It could sell punch cards at a high price because it leased and controlled access to the machines that ran the punch cards. c. It could successfully produce inexpensive computers for personal use. d. It created computers that could be used for a wide variety of purposes.
Not c.
