After World War II, America underwent a phenomenal economic growth spurt. The end of the war brought home the return of the prosperity and helped the United States to regain their position as the richest country in the world. More of the American citizens considered themselves part of the middle class. This growth originated from a variety of sources.
Television had a great impact on both cultural and economic progress. Televisions were developed in 1930s, though they were not widely marketed. As the Second World War was coming to an end, many families had now owned at least a set.
As the years progressed, families started to watch television four to five times a day. Some of the popular television shows for children included: Howdy Doozy Time and The Mickey Mouse Club. Americans were also exposed to television’s advertisements that helped contribute to economy, because they were more exposed to new products and services. After the Second World War, the major corporations within America enlarged. They expanded their operations by acquiring new assets. The bigger corporations expanded their operations beyond America, where labor costs were lower. This also led to a cultural and economic prowess of The United States.
Due to the changing trends in the American industry, the lives of workers changed too. More workers provided the services and others produced goods. By the end of the Second World War, many of the Americans had white-collar jobs, working as teachers, managers, salespersons and office employees.
Some of the firms provided yearly wages, long-term employment and other benefits such as retirement funds. With the several changes in the labor, the previous distinctions in classes began to disappear.On the other hand, farmers encountered difficulties. Agricultural consolidation arose due to improvement in production. Farming emerged as a big business. More farmers evacuated their land and consequently more farmers moved in. This movement led to the growth of the West and Southwest regions.
The trend continued through out the century. As a result of the movement, some Americans were pushed out of inner cities into new suburbs. As suburbs grew, business expanded as well. Highways made the suburbs much more accessible from the cities.
The element that brought the failures of the cultural and economic advantages was the political forces of communism and democracy collisions. It was during these post-war periods that the division of the east from west, left from right took place in the European culture and intellectual life. The United States was on one side of the division supporting democracy and the Soviet Union was on the other side, supporting communism. The ideological differences led to the two parties becoming enemies.
Americans viewed communism as an enemy that could come with several threats. It was worried that the internal harmony of the American society would be disrupted, the cultural, traditional, and economic life destroyed, and international authority of the state would be broken if the Soviet power were to be secure. The prosperity did not bring meaningful redistribution of resources in America. Many of them lived in poverty states. The growth of agribusiness pushed many small and tenant farmers out of their land, consequently swelling the ranks of the urban poor. Unluckily, the growing middle class often turned a blind eye to the poor around them.
This was also a possible reason towards the failures of the cultural and economic advantage of America.
