History of the United States II / Unit 9 USH2 1211 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Consumer Economy
The idea
Mass production, advertising, radio and credit together built what the Yawp calls a new economy and new standards of living. Cars, household appliances, films and radio programmes were produced and consumed on a national scale. The automobile industry promoted buying on credit, and by nineteen twenty-seven most cars were bought that way. Advertising, the anchor says, became a central institution of the new consumer economy, putting goods in front of every household.
In practice
A family buying its car, its radio and its washing machine on monthly payments.
Where people slip
Read the boom and its fragility together. The Yawp notes that by the decade's end the well-to-do had no need for more cars and radios, inventories piled up, and manufacturers cut back. An economy running on consumer credit depended on buyers who could keep buying, and unit ten shows what happened when they could not.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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