The Transformation of the Economy Since 1945
Essay Preview: The Transformation of the Economy Since 1945
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The United States economy was booming in post-World War II society. Every economic class in society was growing in financial stature. This I can believe was directly attributed to the increase in the American consumers “Buying Power”. Increasing membership in the labor organizations Collective Bargaining Agreements were insuring that the workers would get their slice of the American Pie. This era of American life has been referred to as the “Golden Age”. In the years of growth of Labor Organizations and worker equality there was collective efforts of the employees to achieve better working conditions, benefits and monetary reimbursement. The height of worker equality was in 1960, a time where workers shared in the profits of corporations, thus creating the wealthiest and strongest working class in the world.
As there were many contributing factors to the rise of the economy, there have also been just as many factors in its decline. There has been an increasingly large amount of competition in all markets of the American economy. This can almost be directly related to the Globalization of the Technological and Consumer markets. In the era of the post war economy there was only a few major players in these markets. Globalization created an influx of foreign based Corporations and Firms to compete in local markets. This global market forced corporations to increase in the importing of products, materials and the outsourcing of labor to keep up with the foreign competitors. Although these corporations continued to increase their profits and production was up, workers did not continue to increase their wages or compensation equal to their production.
Then there is also the “Investor Revolution”, or as I like to refer to it as the increase in overhead. While these successful large corporations normally had one man in charge, iconic figures such as Henry Ford, John Rockefeller and so on, corporations now had the added pressure of answering to Investors,