Economic boom Flashcards
Population 1920s
120 million
Car ownership by 1929 USA/UK
1 in 5 americans
1 in 43 british
Sales of cars 1919 -> 1929
9 million to 26 million
Radio sales 1919->1929
60,000 to 10 million
Telephone sales 1915 to 1930
10 million to 20 million
Cost of Ford Model T
Reduced from 850$ to 290$ = 3 months wages
Ford Model T production
15 million by 1927, 1 ever 10s in production line
Birth of new aircraft industry
160,000+ commercial flights / year by 1930
Farming
More farms in 1920 than 1930
Farming income 22$B 1919 to 13$B in 1928
Farm prices dropped 50% in 1921 alone
In 1922 Harding reduced agricultural exports: Ford-McCumber Tariff
Buying new products
40% households had radio 1930
1/3 bought from catalogues in 1928
8/10 radios and 6/10 cars bough with credit
Population in rural areas + unemployment
1920s 60 million (1/2) lived in rural
40% of total lived below poverty line
Unemployment constant at 5%
750,000 black workers laid off
Chicago workers
3% unskilled owned a car / 30% of middle class
Rep WASPs Presidents
Harding 1921-23
Coolidge 1923-29
Hoover 1929-32 *rugged individualism
CAR INDUSTRY
employed half a million workers
caused boom in construction: suburbs -> road construction BEST employer 1920s
growth in other industries: 75% of glass + 20% of steel used for cars
Cars cost 3 months wages in 1925 $290
1 car per 5 people in USA, 1 per 43 in UK
FORD MODEL T
production line Ford 1913
1 car every 10s
Over 50% of cars were Ford Model-Ts
Made cheaper cars
BOOM CAUSE first world war
Isolationist + lent money
Its resources not strained: outstrip germany’s industry
BOOM CAUSE rep policies
Protective tariffs
Rugged individualism
No govt interference - ‘laissez-faire’
Low taxation - invest in american goods
Powerful trusts run industries
BOOM CAUSE new industries + mass production
Electricity: amost all urban homes had by 1929
Cheaper methods of production = mass production
Entertainment, motor
nationwide advertising, mail order, chain stores + mindset change (spending good quality)
BOOM CAUSE motor industry
4.8 million cars made in 1929
Employed + supported other industies
BOOM CAUSE consumerism
Prosperity chased
Banks lent money easily: 8/10 radios and 6/10 cars bought on credit
Confidence increased + stock market
WEAKNESS: prosperity not far reaching
Chicago only 3% of skilled workers owned a car: in other richer cities 30%
40% living below poverty line
Farmers poor conditions: overfarming caused drought (Dust Bowl)
WEAKNESS old industry
COAL: price down due to overproduction, replaced by electricity and oil
Underpayed workers: in North Carolina 1928 strike: 70h week payed $18 men, $9 women (min was $48/70h week
TEXTILE: mechanisation laid off workers
Boom no effect on unemployment
BOOM CAUSE natural resources
Mineral, land, oil…
USA became a great industrial power: did not rely on trade
