American society after WWII experienced a major change. The growth of business and industry provided abundant wealth for the country. The middle class grew and grew; this social class was deemed "affluent". As the middle class grew the space between them and the poor also grew. The paradox between progress and poverty in a society which was capable of providing for everyone showed the countries inability to deal with social and civil issues.
The economy was booming and the middle class soared. The standard of living in the middle class also rose. People were able to own all of the amenities of life. Economic prosperity lead to rising incomes which encouraged people to spend. People built new houses in the suburbs or moved into expensive apartments. The Average family owned two cars. These were the expressions of what John Kenneth Galbrith called "affluent society." The middle class looked great but it was becoming apparently obvious that prosperity had bypassed millions of Americans. The poor did not necessarily get poorer but the gap between the poor and the affluent was continuously widening. .
The more obvious centers of poverty existed in the large black intercity slums. With minorities the question of race perpetuated the gaping divisions between rich and poor. In the ghetto poverty meant a severe substandard of living and unemployment or at best low-paid, unskilled jobs. Many black slum dwellers found most legitimate avenues to economic success blocked. The separation of white and black corresponded directly with rich and poor. Because the blacks were unable to break the racial barrier they were stuck with low end jobs. As a result of Urbanization blacks were entering cities as whites were moving to suburbs. The gap between rich and poor was huge.
Neither local or federal programs seemed to do anything to solve the problem. As a result millions of Americans were living in poverty.
Penny loafers make people think of the 1950s or the 1980s. ... For the first time in history, determining who the successful guy is has come down to looking at his shoes, for men of affluence have now joined the fashion cliques, paying extra for a t-shirt with holes and worn out jeans. ...
However, between 1951 and 1964, Britain went from a world power centered around a class dictated society to one of reduced world status but of increased domestic affluence. ... However, it can be argued that crime rates during the 1950s were relatively low. ... However in the 1950s and 1960s, Britain became a more affluent society, with a higher disposable income and a greater influence from America; 91% of the population owned a television in 1964, compared to 4% in 1951. The disposable income and rise in affluence was a key factor in the aggression between the ˜Mods and Rockers' ...
These young men and women touched off a demographic explosion that added more than fifty million babies to the nation's population by the end of the 1950s. ... The construction industry boomed in the 1950s to satisfy the demand of people who wanted to move to the suburbs. ... Some of these changes include increased affluence, the migration to the suburbs, the entry of women into the workforce, and the "baby boom," among many others. ...
Karal Ann Marling asserts that Americans became obsessed with such colorful new objects during the 1950s, and that mass marketing and advertising convinced Americans to display such items as signs of their success and affluence. ... Culture in the 1950s surrounded how things looked and how one wanted to be perceived. ... Americans also used leisure time to take advantage of the hobby mania that swept through 1950s America. ... Key to 1950s consumer culture was appearance, choice and a feeling of being involved in the creation of something. How can this be related to the 1950s automobile craze?...
During the 1950s, the country was riding off of the enjoying a post-war boom. ... The new sign ofThis affluence gained through a rise in disposable income, prior to during the economic boom and through dispensable income, shows that people's lives financially improved financially. In regards toThis improvement in living standards during ; the Conservative period dominance should not be viewedsupports the view that these were not as "thirteen wasted years" However, we mustn't forget that there were still economical issues that remained unsolved during this period, despite t...
FORGING THE LIBERAL CONSENSUS #3 Cultural Basis: Affluence, Domesticity, Normalization Suburbanization: Maximizing economic rewards and psychic benefits of Cold War. ... POLITICAL CHALLENGE #2: BLACK EXCLUSION The far more serious challenge to the liberal consensus in the 1950s was the reality of American racism. ... At the same time the black civil rights movement of the 1950s takes up the language and rhetoric of American patriotism, affluence, normality and consensus and exposes it as potentially hollow and meaningless since it doesn't apply to all citizens. ...
During the 1950s, a period of traditional gender norms and separate spheres, there was a rise in filter cigarettes because of the increasing number of health risks tied to smoking.1 As a result, cigarette companies started pushing filtered cigarettes, which were (naively) seen as the "safer" alternative. ... "3 This simple slogan refers to every woman as "Miss America," making Lucky Strikes not only accessible to all American women but also associating smoking with wealth and affluence. ...
