US History Question - Assignment Example

Consumerism What was consumerism and what do you think were some of its important effects on American society and politics between the years of 1920 and 1945?The definition of consumerism is different in politics, economics and the social field. In economics, it encourages consumption of goods, in social order it encourages acquisition of goods and services in great amounts while in politics, it refers to protecting the rights of consumers through packaging and advertising honesty as well as ensuring safety standards for their products to the customers.

Consumerism led to growth in the country between 1920 and 1930. Almost everybody owned a motor vehicle and other forms of wealth. Socially, the women started to be noticed and their voices heard. Politically, there were no problems in that period and the government spent a lot in development of industries and production of more goods to meet the increasing demand. The economic depression however hit and consumerism was reduced drastically. People had no personal savings and their personal debts had increased tremendously and this contributed greatly to depression up to 1945.

Government started limiting people on some commodities such as gasoline due to the shortage and the prices of goods to consumers rose without the government having any control over them. Even through the hard times however, the social system with women’s recognition growing stronger was not affected (Zygmunt 22). Work CitedZygmunt, Bauman. Work, Consumerism and the new Poor. New York: McGraw-Hill International, 2004.