Fluctuations In The Standard Of Living

Question 1

Indicators of the standard of living

Answer 1

Home ownership 
Running water, bathrooms and toilets 
Lighting and cooking methods 
Education and level of 
Radios and household appliances 
% spent on food and wages 
Health and life expectancy 
Amount spent on healthcare

Question 2

50s rise in consumerism

Answer 2

War reduced consumer spending and desire to spend following WWII
Industry returned to peace time goods
Manufacturers give more variety (Ford: more colours)
Built in obsolescence
Targeted groups of people and more TV advertising

Question 3

Who missed out on the rising standard of living?

Answer 3

1) African Americans
2) Native Americans
3) farm workers

Question 4

Rise of TV- percentage ownership of TVs

Answer 4

1950- 9%

1960- 85%

Question 5

Consumers as targets

Answer 5

Children and ‘pester power’
Women for domestic goods
Men as targets for car advertisements

Question 6

Food in the 50s

Answer 6

Increase in the sale of artificial foods and flavoured drinks
Success of Coca Cola
More processed food

Question 7

Teenage consumption

Answer 7

50s saw ‘invention of the teenager’
$10 billion a year
Transport (mostly car)
Clothing and sport: girls more cosmetics/ clothes, boys: sports equipments and trips
20% more spending on food and drink
Entertainment spending: records, movie makers target audience with HS films/ cheap horror films eg ‘the blob’

Question 8

The challenge of the 1970s- stagflation

Answer 8

When business stops expanding and stagnates while inflation continues
Normally inflation, if not too high, leads to economic growth and increased confidence- in the USA in 70s there was inflation but little sig growth- stagflation

Question 9

Employment and income in the 70s

Answer 9

Rising number of unemployed and those on fixed income suffered
Business tax rises alongside unemployment

Question 10

Reasons of the 1970s stagflation

Answer 10

American loss of manufacturing to Japan and Europe
Rising cost in raw materials (particularly oil- due to 1973 crisis, quadrupled price)
Rise in taxes

Question 11

Signs of a post war boom

Answer 11

Factories produced more 
New suburbs 
Marriage rates 
Nation building up 
Modern homes and conveniences

Question 12

Growth of consumer culture

Answer 12

Women focal point of family life

New car culture was way to express wealth

Question 13

Problems of a growing car culture

Answer 13

Inner cities plights and had growing poverty and crime rates
People drove most places due to lack of efficient public transport
Business changed to accommodate rising no of cars: parking, drive ins

Question 14

How did politics change people’s behaviour?

Answer 14

‘Godless’ communism and threats of Cold War grew religious beliefs
Surge in religious participation
Protection of homes due to threats- eg built in fallout shelters
Shelters, ‘duck and cover’ tutorials, reinforced homes, radiation suits

Question 15

Emerging groups in the 60s

Answer 15

Teenagers: more leisure time and youth increasingly stayed in school not work
Explore craze of Rock n Roll- growing sense of rebellion
Elvis Presley: ‘suggestive hips’ ‘loose’ music
‘Beat Generation’ were precursors of the hippies- non conformist and defiant artists, poets and writers