Post on 09-Apr-2018
transcript
How did the booming economy of the 1920s lead to changes in American life?
• During the 1920s, the American economy experienced tremendous growth. Using mass production techniques, workers produced more goods in less time than ever before.
• The boom changed how Americans lived and helped create the modern consumer economy.
The 1920s were a time of rapid economic growth in the United States.
Much of this boom can be traced to the automobile.
The Automobile Drives Prosperity
• The Post-WWI recession ended quickly.
• Stock Prices rose quickly- factories were producing more goods.
• Wages were on the rise- people bought more items
• Henry Ford introduced methods and ideas that changed production, wages, and working conditions , and daily life.
Ford made the Model T affordable by applying mass production techniques to making cars.
• A moving assembly line brought cars to workers, who each added one part.
• Ford consulted scientific management experts to make his manufacturing process more efficient.
• The time to assemble a Model T dropped from 12 hours to just 90 minutes.
Ford Pioneers Mass Production• Ford did not originate “mass production”, he did
however bring it to new heights. • Ford made the automobile affordable for
everyone.• The Model T(1908) was a reliable car that sold
for $850• Opened factory in Detroit, and used the
“assembly line” to shorten the production time. (12 hrs to 90mins) eventually cost dropped to $290 by 1927.
• Ford also doubled the wages of his workers.
• Reduced the workday from 9 to 8 hours.• In 1926, he became the first to give his
workers the weekends off.• The Model T & the “5-dollar, 40hour
workday” made Ford one of the shapers of the modern world.
How the Automobile Changed America
• Road construction boomed, and new businesses opened along the routes.
• Other car-related industries included steel, glass, rubber, asphalt, gasoline, and insurance.
• Oil discoveries brought people to the southwest (Ca, Tx, Ok,)
• Millions of cars on the road led to service stations, diners, and motor hotels (motels).
• Workers could live farther away from their jobs.
• Families used cars for leisure trips and vacations.
• Fewer people traveled on trolleys or trains.
• The federal government began a numbering system for all highways in 1926.
• Other forms of transportation suffered (trolleys & RR)
• Cars brought a sense of autonomy to Americans.
• Ownership was a symbol of the American Dream.
• Suburbs were created as people were able to drive to work and live further away from their jobs.
• Los Angeles was one of the first cities to be affected by the automobile.
• “A series of suburbs in search for a city”
A Bustling Economy
• The ‘20s saw a “consumer revolution”, in which a flood of new, affordable goods became available.
• Electric washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and irons made housekeeping easier and less time consuming.
• Radios and refrigerators.
Advertising and Credit Build Consumer Culture
• Magazines and newspaper ads focused on desires and fears of Americans.
• Advertisers celebrated consumption.• Americans soon were buying products
years prior would have never thought about. (vacuum)
• Video
• -Installment plans became a way for everyone to afford the new products.
• -People now were buying products that otherwise they could not afford.
The 1920s saw a consumer revolution.
Using installment buying, people could buy more.
Advertising created demand.
New products flooded the market.
A Bull Market
• Bull market- a period of raising stock prices.
• Americans began to invest heavily into the stock market, hoping to make quick money.
• Buying on Margin- a form of buying on credit- risky investment practice.
• A buyer paid as little as 10% of the stock upfront.
• Then the buyer would pay the rest in installments over a period of months.
• The stock served as collateral.
• Buyers gambled the stock would be worth and thus sell the stock and make money.
Cities, Suburbs, and Country
• In the 1920’s the urban and suburban life prospered, however, the rural sections of the county still felt many hardships.
• Immigrants, farmers, and African Americans all migrated to the cities.
• Steel changed the way the cities looked. Skyscrapers soon cluttered the skyline.
• NY’s Empire State Building- 1931
• More and more people who worked in cities moved to the suburbs.
• Suburbs grew faster than inner cities.
Cities expanded outward, thanks to automobiles and mass transit systems.