Economics in the 1950s

Economics

By the 1950s people were beginning to realize that the economy affects every person individually, whether they have a salary of fifty cents to ten million dollars. The security of our jobs and how much we earn doing them, the cost of the goods we buy, the price we pay to borrow money, and the interest we get by saving it are all directly related to the health of the economy. And in the 1950s the American economy was the strongest in the world.

In the 1950s people were receiving jobs as large companies created more jobs and we were buying new technology such as the transistor and color television. People also began to work in white-collar jobs more than ever, and the baby boom, coupled with the GI Bill, laid the groundwork for newly developed communities and suburbs. Other economic activities were buying on credit, playing the stock market, and taking loans from banks.

A nation's prosperity is measured by its national income, the value of all the goods and services it produces, and also called the gross national product (GNP). By that measure, as by many others, the United States was the unquestioned world leader after World War II. In 1950 the U.S. GNP was $284.6 billion, and by the end of the 1950s it had increased to $482.7 billion. American exports reached all-time highs as they steadily increased during the decade, and the amount by which the value of exports beats the value of imports had never been higher in peacetime.

When the economy was expanded so much many new jobs were opened up offering more options to make inventions for people and new activities. McDonalds was the beginning of the fast food business, the first modern credit card was produced because of all the credit spending, and Lego also came out in the '50s. If not for the great expand in the economy we would be behind in all the inventions we have today.

The American economy in 1950 dominated the world and gave hope to everyone that the wars were finally over and people could move on.