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Technical Writing for Success3rd EditionDarlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson 468 solutions Edge Reading, Writing and Language: Level CDavid W. Moore, Deborah Short, Michael W. Smith 304 solutions Technical Writing for Success3rd EditionDarlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson 468 solutions During the Eisenhower era, Americans achieved stunning new levels of prosperity, while other parts of the world struggled to rebuild from the devastation of World War II. Eisenhower’s combination of low taxes, balanced budgets, and public spending allowed the economy to prosper. The Decade of Prosperity The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s and unemployment remained low, about 4.5%. At the end of the decade, the median American family had 30% more purchasing power than at the beginning. Inflation was minimal, in part because of Eisenhower's efforts to balance the federal budget. The GI Bill gave veterans an affordable college education, providing a pool of highly educated employees to the work force. Cheap oil from U.S. wells fueled industry while advances in science and technology improved productivity. Eisenhower's Middle Way Eisenhower’s main economic goal was to achieve a balanced federal budget. He realized that many of the New Deal's social programs were both popular and effective. For example, he expanded Social Security to cover another ten million people. He invested federal money in the Interstate Highway System, one of the largest ever public spending projects. As the nation went into a recession in 1958–59, Eisenhower allowed the federal deficit to grow to stimulate the economy. By 1960, he managed to return the budget to a surplus, fighting tax cuts when they threatened to increase government debt. Democrats demanded increases in defense spending to counter the Soviet threat. As an experienced military leader, Eisenhower reassured the nation that the defense budget did not need to be increased. The Rise of Consumerism The prosperity of the '50s was fueled by an increase in consumer spending. The adults of the '50s had grown up in general poverty during the Great Depression and then rationing during World War II. By the 1950s, Americans were just 6% of the world's population, but they consumed 30% of all the world's goods and services. America shifted from a production society, which focused on meeting basic needs, to a consumption society. Blessed with abundant resources, America could afford to turn part of its productive capacity to creating unnecessary goods and waste. The older generation had been careful to save and reuse, while Americans in the '50s used and threw away. This consumerism was driven by advertising, designed to make people want more, better, and newer things. A Nation in Debt The '50s gave rise to the "buy now, pay later" mentality. The Federal Housing Administration and the Veteran's Administration offered low-interest loans to allow families to buy new homes. The first credit card was offered in 1950, touching off a dramatic growth in borrowing. People borrowed to buy houses, cars, appliances, and swimming pools. Left Out of Prosperity Even so, 25% of citizens lived in poverty. Much of this poverty was "invisible," affecting Blacks in urban neighborhoods and whites in depressed rural areas. Middle-class Americans never saw the misery in other sectors of American society. During the 1950s, a sense of uniformity pervaded American society. Conformity was common, as young and old alike followed group norms rather than striking out on their own. Though men and women had been forced into new employment patterns during World War II, once the war was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed. Men expected to be the breadwinners; women, even when they worked, assumed their proper place was at home. Sociologist David Riesman observed the importance of peer-group expectations in his influential book, The Lonely Crowd. He called this new society "other-directed," and maintained that such societies lead to stability as well as conformity. Television contributed to the homogenizing trend by providing young and old with a shared experience reflecting accepted social patterns. But not all Americans conformed to such cultural norms. A number of writers, members of the so-called "beat generation," rebelled against conventional values. Stressing spontaneity and spirituality, they asserted intuition over reason, Eastern mysticism over Western institutionalized religion. The "beats" went out of their way to challenge the patterns of respectability and shock the rest of the culture. Their literary work displayed their sense of freedom. Jack Kerouac typed his best-selling novel On the Road on a 75-meter roll of paper. Lacking accepted punctuation and paragraph structure, the book glorified the possibilities of the free life. Poet Allen Ginsberg gained similar notoriety for his poem "Howl," a scathing critique of modern, mechanized civilization. When police charged that it was obscene and seized the published version, Ginsberg won national acclaim with a successful court challenge. Musicians and artists rebelled as well. Tennessee singer Elvis Presley popularized black music in the form of rock and roll, and shocked more staid Americans with his ducktail haircut and undulating hips. In addition, Elvis and other rock and roll singers demonstrated that there was a white audience for black music, thus testifying to the increasing integration of American culture. Painters like Jackson Pollock discarded easels and laid out gigantic canvases on the floor, then applied paint, sand and other materials in wild splashes of color. All of these artists and authors, whatever the medium, provided models for the wider and more deeply felt social revolution of the 1960s. How did the American standard of living change in the 1950s?Rates of unemployment and inflation were low, and wages were high. Middle-class people had more money to spend than ever–and, because the variety and availability of consumer goods expanded along with the economy, they also had more things to buy.
How do you define the American culture of the 1950s?During the 1950s, a sense of uniformity pervaded American society. Conformity was common, as young and old alike followed group norms rather than striking out on their own. Though men and women had been forced into new employment patterns during World War II, once the war was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed.
Where were most Americans living during the 1950s?Suburbanization had only recently begun by 1950 and would expand greatly in the coming decades. The U.S. population in 1950 still lived mostly either in cities or in rural areas, often on farms. The share of the population in metro areas was 56.1% in 1950, with 32.8% in central cities and 23.3% living in suburbs.
Why did standards of living improve for many Americans in the 1950s?Why did standards of living improve for many Americans in the 1950s? Many factors came together to produce the Fifties boom. The GI Bill, which gave military veterans affordable access to a college education returning from World War II. "Big spender" became a common phrase in this era.
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Explain the meaning of the American standard of living during the 1950s
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