Transcript Post War Economy - Westerville City Schools

Post War Economy
Businesses Reorganize
The GNP doubled


–
Per Capita Income-average
annual income per person

Rose from 1,223 to 2,219
Business was dominated by
a few large companies

–
–
–
General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler
Conglomerate-a corporation
made up of three or more
unrelated businesses
Why is this a good idea?
Franchises came into
existence

–
–
A business that contracts to
offer certain goods and
services from a larger parent
company
McDonalds!
Technology
Transforms Life
Television


–
Television became
popular

–
Howdy Doody, the Mickey
Mouse Club and
American Bandstand
Three large Networks
controlled television
programming and got
money through
advertisers
The Computer
Industry

–
The War created
powerful calculators
and computers

–
–
Businesses adopted them
Debugging
Transistor



A tiny circuit device that
amplifies, controls and
generates electrical
signals
Used in radios,
computers and other
electric devices
Computers that once
took over rooms now fit
on desks

Advances in Medicine
–
–
Polio vaccine was
developed
Advances in antibiotics
were made, developed
antibiotics that were
effective against
penicillin-resistant
bacteria


Changes in the Work
Force
Jobs Shifted from Blue
Collar to White Collar
– Caused service industry to
rise
– Blue collar workers were
replaced by Machines



Suburbs and
Highways
a. Baby Boom-spike
in birth rates
Moving to the Suburbs
– GI Bill of RightsServicemen’s
Readjustment Act of
1944- gave low interest
mortgages to purchase
new homes and provided
them with educational
stipends to go to college
or graduate school
– The mass production
techniques that were used
in factories were applied
to houses

Cars and Highways
–
–
–
Stores moved from
cities to shopping
centers
The automobile industry
grew
1956 Federal-Aid
Highway Act-national
web of new roads that
allowed for evacuation
of major cities in the
even of nuclear attack