110 likes | 167 Views
Warm-up. What are the advantages and disadvantages of buying items on credit? Explain your answers please. The Economy of the 1920s. Farmers. Wartime production based on borrowed money World competition lowered prices by 50% Technological improvements resulted in more debt
E N D
Warm-up • What are the advantages and disadvantages of buying items on credit? Explain your answers please.
Farmers • Wartime production based on borrowed money • World competition lowered prices by 50% • Technological improvements resulted in more debt • Did not share in prosperity of 20s
The Automobile • Ultimate consumer toy • Mass production • Henry Ford-assembly line more efficient • Ripple effect on the economy • 3.7 million employed directly or indirectly • Stimulated other industries (steel, rubber, glass, petroleum, chemical) • Highway construction (billion dollar a year enterprise) • Spent leisure time traveling in cars • Opened new business opportunities • Helped construction industry become one of the few industries that really boomed in 20s.
Advertising and Consumption • Grew with automobile industry • Billion dollar industry • New way to introduce modern technological products (washing machines, radios, vacuum cleaners, etc.) • Enticed consumers to spend money they did not really have
Led to mass consumption of items not considered necessities—materialistic items--- “stuff” • Cultural ideal mostly for middle class; criterion for considering self-worth • Brand names and chain stores • New method of buying—credit—installment plan—buy now pay later; the beginning of the credit card concept
Uneven Prosperity • African Americans lost their factory jobs to returning servicemen • Native Americans (given citizenship 1924) held on reservations with little or no productive work • Many immigrants couldn’t find work; farmers and factories paid low wages • Deep South left out of economic boom as agricultural economic base eroded after the war
Activity: • Packet