VI.Into the Modern Era (1950s – Present)

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 392.

The United States continued to grow after the war, both in population and economically. The postwar “baby boom” consumer spending and numbers of consumers increased substantially. The American “middle class” became dominant. By now the United States was the richest nation in the world. As a result, America was developing an extensive infrastructure to match its wealth. The completion of the Interstate Highway System “remains the largest public works project in the history of the world”. Finally, the strong interrelationship between the government and the ever-expanding industrial sector (the “military-industrial complex”) helped establish the United States as the economic superpower of the world.

The middle of the twentieth century saw a brief expansion of labor unions and then labor policy. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s President urged further expand and guarantee access to opportunity by minorities in America while Congress helped support new federal spending in the form of programs such as Medicare and Food Stamps. But economic trouble largely resulting from the Vietnam War and high domestic spending plagued the economy in the 1970s. The economy faced inflation and shockwaves from global crises that drove oil prices and consumer discontent high.

As a result of increased expenditures (particular in the military and defense) but decreased taxes there were significant increases in both the budget deficit and the national debt as the U.S. government was forced to borrow heavily from other countries.

A recession of the early 1990s lingering from the stock market crash of 1987 was drawn out by high oil prices, but consumer confidence and spending helped keep the economy afloat. The economy of the 1990s was driven by the rise of technology and the Internet, whose companies made startling gains on the stock market. Personal and business technology alike broadened and streamlined access to the global marketplace. Economic optimism was based upon high-tech “dot.com” industries who built their success from low interest rates and enthusiastic investors during an era of low unemployment and low inflation.

The Federal Reserve closely monitored America's economic pace and played an active role in the American economy. But it is also because of the Reserve selling billions in bonds to the Chinese that China has gradually assumed role of banker to America. That, in addition to America's virtual dependence upon cheaply manufactured Chinese goods to sustain America's consumer-driven economy, had managed to keep inflation, interest rates, and corporate wage costs in America artificially low. Low, even as the economy was taxed by terrorism, military fronts and natural disasters.