The Development of the Affluent Society

Wartime Prosperity.

As World War II drew to a close many Americans wondered if it would be followed by a return to depression and massive job losses. Huge government outlays for the defense production ended unemployment, made the American worker the best paid in the world, and raised the financial expectations of the American public. Government spending for goods and services soared from $11 billion in 1939 to $117 billion in 1945. The gross national product (GNP) went from $100 billion in 1940 to $200 billion in 1945. With 6 percent of the world's population, the United States was producing 50 percent of the world's goods. As a result the personal consumption of civilians rose by 25 percent, reaching the highest level in U.S. history. In 1939 about 15 percent of Americans were unemployed; by 1945 that rate had been reduced virtually to zero. Before the great stock market crash of 1929, fewer than one-third of Americans had...

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